















































































































































Class Ok b 

Book_ 



COF/HIGHT DEPOSIT. 























WRECKS REBUILT 

* 

and other 

Evangelistic Sermons 


By 

Walter Krumwiede, B.D. 

formerly Superintendent of the Lutheran 
Inner Mission Society of Buffalo, N. Y. 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE UNITED LUTHERAN PUBLICATION HOUSE 





Copyright, 1923, by 
The Board of Publication of 
The United Lutheran Church in America 



©CI.A698558 

MAR -9 ’23 


I 



PREFACE 

These sermons are not theoretical discourses, prepared 
in the quiet of the study, and preached to imaginary 
audiences. Every one was used several times in the 
course of my work in various charitable, correctional, 
and penal institutions and rescue missions while I served 
the Buffalo Inner Mission Society 

They are now offered to the Church and to the general 
public as examples of “conservative evangelism” and as 
an antidote to much of the present-day emotionalism that 
passes as evangelistic preaching. It is also hoped that 
these sermons will encourage our earnest laymen and 
hesitant pastors to take a more active part in the work 
among the fallen and unfortunate. It requires no special 
gift of oratory to deliver the message of salvation. He 
who is thoroughly saved himself and devoted to the 
Saviour has a testimony to give, and no message or 
preaching is real or effective unless it comes from a 
saved and consecrated life. It is the simple, earnest 
message from such a life, and not the emotional oratory 
falsely called “evangelistic preaching,” that reaches 
burdened souls and helps them to see and to accept 
Christ as their Saviour. 

I am indebted to the Oxford University Press, Amer¬ 
ican Branch, New York City, for their very kind per¬ 
mission to use the text of The ipn Bible . In all the 
sermons, with the exception of the three taken from my 
work, The Fivefold Pathway (Wartburg Pub. House, 

3 


\ 


PREFACE 


Chicago), I have employed the text of The 1911 Bible . 
To my mind this text has a happy combination lacking in 
all other revisions—the preservation of the spirit and 
simplicity of the old Authorized with the accuracy of 
modern scholarship. 


Epiphany, ig 22. 
Rochester, N.Y. 


The Author. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Preface . 3 

I. Wrecks Rebuilt. 

John 6:12 . 7 

II. Christ, The End for Righteousness. 

Rom. 10:4 . 14 

III. Sin Described and Defeated. 

Gal. 5:1 . 24 

IV. The Cry That Saves. 

Psalm 51: 1-4, 7-12. 32 

V. The Pathway of Suffering. 

Isa. 53: 4-6 . 45 

VI. Fellowship With God: Its Origin. 

I John 1:3 . 52 

VII. Fellowship With God: Its Nature. 

I John 1:5-10; 2:9-16 . 61 

VIII. Fellowship With God: Its Proofs. 

I John 3 • 10-24 . 71 

IX. The Compassion of Christ. 

Mark 8:1-9 . 84 

X. The Reality and Nature of Hell. 

Matt. 23:33; 25:30, 41 . 93 

XI. A New Year's Thought. 

Luke 13: 6-9 . 104 

XII. The Pathway of Death. 

Isa. 53 ^ 7-9 . 112 

XIII. Spiritual Success. 

Luke 8:8, 15 . 120 

XIV. The Pathway of the Accomplished Mission. 

Isa. 53 :10-12 . 129 

5 




















Wrecks Rebuilt 


WRECKS REBUILT 

John 6: 12. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, 
Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 

Life is like a long reach of stormy, rock-bound coast 
against which the angry waves toss and drive many a 
fine vessel, grinding it against the unyielding shore, 
until broken to pieces. Here is the wreck of a blasted 
hope; there lies the bleaching skeleton of the good bark, 
Love; there are scattered the splinters of an ideal, lost 
forever. 

Yet sad and great as are the wrecks of a blasted hope, 
a blighted love, and a shattered ideal, they are as noth¬ 
ing before the saddest of all wrecks,—the wreck of a 
misspent life; of a life dashed to pieces by some sudden 
blow of satanic power, or gradually ground to frag¬ 
ments under the relentless driving of sin piled upon sin. 

Have you ever stopped to think of the crushing sad¬ 
ness rolled up on others in the wake of your misspent 
life ?—the terrible crushing burden of broken hearts; of 
hot tears; of bitter hours?—have you stopped to think 
of the crushing burden of disease and sorrow, of 
anguish and despair you have tossed up on the hearts 
of those who trusted and loved you? Would to God 
7 



8 


WRECKS REBUILT 


you could be brought to see and to feel how awful and 
how far-reaching are the consequences of a misspent 
life, of that life of yours wrecked in the service of the 
devil! 

But what I wish to impress upon you is not the sad¬ 
ness or the awfulness of your misspent life. I wish 
to point you to Him, Who can take the wreck of your 
life,—yea, every shattered fragment of its remains,— 
and by His mercy, grace, and love rebuild it into a new 
soul-bark, fit and ready, under the hand of the Great 
Pilot, God’s Holy Spirit, to leave the coast of sin, sail, 
like a gallant ship-of-the-line across the sea of service 
and enter at last the harbor of heavenly peace; for, no 
matter how badly your life has been shattered by hell’s 
power, there is One, standing among us now, Who calls 
to each of you and says: “Gather up the fragments that 
remain, that nothing be lost.” 

Who speaks these words? It is He, Who said: “The 
Son of man is come to seek and to save that which 
was lost it is He, Who said: “The Spirit of the Lord 
is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the 
gospel to the poor: He hath sent me to heal the broken¬ 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and re¬ 
covering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them 
that are bruised;” 3 it is He, Who said: “Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest;” 3 it is He, Who said: “I am not come 
to call the righteous, but sinners unto repentance;” 4 it 
is He, Who said: “I have compassion on the multi¬ 
tude.” 5 Yes, it is He, Who, sitting upon the throne 

*Luke 19:10. 3 Luke 4:18. 8 Matt. 11:28. 

4 Matt. 9:13. * Mark 8: 2. 


WRECKS REBUILT 


9 


of heaven, said: “Behold, I make all things new/’ 6 

And what does He say now? “And Jesus . 
said . . . Gather up the fragments that remain. ,, 

The fragments, the broken and apparently useless and 
waste bits of your life Christ calls you to give to Him! 
Do not begin to argue and to say: “Christ can do noth¬ 
ing with my life.” Do not say: “My life is too far 
gone. It's useless for me to do what He asks. It’s 
too late now!” To Christ has been given “all power 
. in heaven and in earth.” 7 He can, therefore, 
take, rebuild, and keep forever that broken life of yours. 

Listen! What has your life been that it is now so 
terrible in its sinfulness the Son of God cannot use it? 
Have you been a thief ? one who has broken God’s com¬ 
mand: “Thou shalt not steal?” 8 Then see the power 
of God taking Jacob the thief, who robbed his brother 
of his inheritance, who, by trickery, stole the cattle of 
his father-in-law. Look at him and see him, Jacob the 
thief, under the power of God transformed into Israel, 
the prince of God, a father of God’s chosen people, a 
forefather of God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. 
Or look at the thief, hanging on the cross near Jesus, 
and hear him as he prays: “Lord, remember me when 
thou comest into thy kingdom.” 9 Then listen as Christ 
answers him: “Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou 
be with me in Paradise.” 10 

Have you taken your body, and by the awful sins of 
your beastly lusts, stained it and dragged God’s temple 
into the mud of unrighteousness? Are you guilty before 
God of having broken His command: “Thou shalt not 

* Rev. 21: 5. 7 Matt. 28:18. 8 Exod. 20: >15. 

9 Luke 23:42 10 Luke 23:43. 


10 


WRECKS REBUILT 


commit adultery?” 11 Then see the poor woman, toil¬ 
ing out of the city in the heat of the noonday sun. 
See,—she comes to the well to draw water. By the well 
sits a Stranger. Why, it is Jesus! Does He condemn 
her? No. He, the sinless One, says to her, the sinner, 
“Give me to drink.” 12 Now He tells her of the water 
of life, which drowns out the thirst of lust and evil 
passion. Now He reveals to her her terrible and lost 
condition. And now, filled by His grace, quickened by 
His mercy, ennobled by His divine presence, she puts 
down her water pot, and returns to her town, no longer 
the sinful wanton, but the servant of the Lord, the first 
missionary of Jesus the Christ; yes, not only returns 
to testify of Christ, but to bring the whole city to His 
feet and His faith. Or see,—there stands another such 
sinner before Christ and waits His judgment. Can 
you not hear the words of compassionate love as He 
says: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no 
more.” 13 

Have you been a drunkard? Have you broken the 
commandment of God, which reads: “Let us walk 
honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunken¬ 
ness;” 14 or, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is ex¬ 
cess?” 15 Then see Noah, the drunkard, mocked by 
his own flesh and blood, when touched by God, trans¬ 
formed into the prophet of the Most High. Or see 
Lot, drunk, debauched, debasing his own daughters: 
and yet, when this same Lot responded to the call of 
God he was so transformed that God could say of him 
he was a “righteous man.” 16 

11 Exod. 20: 14. 12 John 4:7. “John 8:11. 

14 Rom. 13:13. 15 Eph. 5:18. 19 II Pet. 2:8. 


WRECKS REBUILT 


11 


Have you been a murderer? Have you been the 
means, directly or indirectly, of the death of any per¬ 
son? Have you helped to plan the blotting out of some 
life? Are you guilty before God of having broken His 
command: “Thou shalt not kill?” 17 Then see Moses, 
the murderer, who slew the Egyptian and thought he 
could hide his sin by quickly and secretly burying the 
body; see him, under the power of God transformed 
into Moses the leader and lawgiver of God's people. 
Or see Saul of Tarsus, consenting to the death of 
Stephen, and armed with authority to slay and to kill 
the Christians; see this same “Saul, yet breathing out 
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the 
Lord,” 18 on the road to Damascus brought face to face 
with Christ and so transfigured and transformed by 
the Vision that he becomes Paul the Apostle. And now 
see him, standing before Felix the Roman governor; 
hear him as he reasons “of righteousness, temperance, 
and judgment to come,” 19 until Felix, the lion of Rome, 
crouches in fear and trembling before God represented 
in the preaching of an ex-murderer. 

Know, one and all, “The Lord’s hand is not short¬ 
ened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it 
cannot hear” 20 when you cry to Him, “God be merciful 
to me a sinner!” 21 I care not what your sin has been. 
I care not how terribly Satan has shattered and broken 
your life. I care not how great the wreck left on the 
shore. This one thing I know, if you are ready and 
willing to hear and to obey Christ when He calls to 
you: “Gather up the fragments that remain;” if you 

17 Exod. 20:13. 18 Acts 9:1. "Acts 24:25. 

30 Isa. 59:1. 31 Luke 18:13. 


12 


WRECKS REBUILT 


are ready and willing to cast every fragment, every sin, 
every unrighteousness into the hand of Christ, He will 
not only rebuild them into a new soul-ship, but will 
keep that rebuilt soul-ship through every storm of life, 
and guide it at last spotless into the eternal harbor of 
God’s fair haven of rest, to be there forever in the 
blessedness of sins forgiven and forgotten. 

Christ “is able also to save them to the uttermost that 
come unto God by him.” 22 “Christ also hath once suf¬ 
fered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God.” 23 “He was manifested to take away 
our sins.” 24 Therefore, when in repentance and faith, 
you “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world;” 25 when, in repentance and faith, you 
look to Christ and say: “My Lord and my God,” 26 then 
will you know what Paul means, when he writes, 
“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ; for when we were 
yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the 
ungodly.” 27 Yea, more! “we also joy in God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the 
atonement.” 28 The at-one-ment! The broken sinner, 
made one with the image of God; the restored sinner, 
made one with God, Whose image he stained and 
broke! And all through and in Christ, Who “everliveth 
to make intercession for” 29 the repentant sinner. 

“That nothing be lost.” I have tried to show you 
the graciousness, the mercy, and the love of God in 

Christ Jesus, Who is calling to you; I have tried to 

23 Heb. 7:22. 23 1 Pet. 3:18. 24 1 John 3:5. 

35 John 1: 29. 28 Luke 20: 28. 27 Rom. 5:1, 6. 

28 Rom. 5:11. 29 Heb. 7:25. 


WRECKS REBUILT 


13 


show you that no matter how sinful your life has been 
if you will but listen and obey now the call, “Gather 
up the fragments that remain/’ Christ can rebuild your 
life. Now I want you to see the all-inclusiveness of 
this possibility. 

You are now willing to grant that Christ can call 
the sinner; yes, you will go a step further and admit 
that He does call sinners to new lives of righteousness 
and peace. You are ready to admit the possibility, but 
you will not yet admit the probability of Christ’s power 
in and for your life. Therefore, I ask you to look at 
the closing words of Christ’s command: “That nothing 
be lost.” Christ says: “Nothing . . . lost.” There 

is not only the possibility, there is also the probability 
which you still doubt. I am not going to ask you to 
take my word for the truth of this promise of Christ. 
I am going to let Christ speak for Himself. Listen! 
He says: “The Son of man is come to save that which 
was lost.” 30 He says: “God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 31 
He says: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall 
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up 
into everlasting life.” 32 He says: “Him that cometh 
to me I will in no wise cast out.” 33 He says: “I am 
the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, 
and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” 34 

Cannot your spirit now say, “Christ said it; I believe 
it; that settles it!” Amen. 

30 Matt. 18:11. 31 John 3:16. 33 John 4:14. 

33 John 6 : 37 - 84 John 10:9. 


CHRIST, THE END FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS 

Rom. 10:4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness 
to every one that believeth. 

As we study the workings of God one thing is driven 
home to us above everything else, i.e., that every act 
of God is the expression of divine purpose. God never 
does anything, God never ordains anything, God never 
wills anything unless He has some definite aim to 
accomplish. The great and underlying purpose of 
God’s working is evidently designed to further the wel¬ 
fare of mankind. Therefore, every act of God is an 
expression of His mercy and grace. For example: 
when God called Abraham and said to him: “Get thee 
out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy 
father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee;” 1 it 
was for the furtherance of a great divine mercy-plan,— 
“thou shalt be a blessing . . . and in thee shall all 

the families of the earth be blessed.” 2 When Joseph 
was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, the 
jealousy and hatred, which prompted the deed, missed 
their mark. Why? Because God had planned to open 
a way through Joseph by which the children of Israel 
might be brought into Egypt, the only civilized country 
of the day, and there learn those arts and crafts of war, 
industry, and commerce, which would fit them to be¬ 
come the conquerors and inheritors of the Promised 
Land. 

^en. 12:1. 3 Gen. 12:3. 

14 


CHRIST, THE END FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS 15 


God’s holy purposes and His great mercy and grace 
are shown also in the relation of Christ to the Divine 
Will as found in the Law of God. It is easy for us to 
see a revelation of grace and mercy in Christ’s many 
gracious and merciful acts, which He sums up in His 
reply to the imprisoned John: “Go and shew John again 
those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive 
their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, 
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor 
have the gospel preached to them.” 3 These are gracious 
and merciful deeds, revealing to us the will and love of 
God in Christ Jesus for and toward the sinner. 

Yet, this same truth is found in Christ’s relation to 
the Law of God. Yes, even more so, for while the ter¬ 
rible ills and bodily afflictions, which Christ cured, 
affected only the earthly, bodily existence of these poor 
souls, the Law, as the expression of God’s holy and 
eternal justice, affects the entire destiny of body and 
soul, not only for time and this world, but also for 
eternity and the world to come. Therefore, any effect 
Christ’s relation to the Law produces in the soul’s re¬ 
lation to God is of first importance and one which is 
evidently full of God’s purpose and a key to the open¬ 
ing up of His mercy and grace. 

It is not by chance, therefore, but by a direct and 
determined revelation of the Spirit of God that Paul 
writes to the Roman Christians, and through them by 
the same Spirit to every sinning soul, earnestly and 
prayerfully seeking the Way, the Truth, and the Life, 
“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every¬ 
one that believeth.” 


Matt. 11:4, 5. 


16 


WRECKS REBUILT 


Let us consider the natural divisions of this passage: 

1. Christ the End of the Law; 

2. Christ the End for Righteousness; 

3. Christ the End for Righteousness to Everyone 

that Believeth. 

The end of the Law in Christ is found, first, in that 
the Law is the force or power of God, acting on the sin- 
stained, sin-stricken conscience, which drives the sinner 
to Christ. The Holy Spirit says that the Law is “our 
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” 4 Now the 
purpose of a schoolmaster is to teach, to replace ignor¬ 
ance with knowledge. As he does this he leads the 
pupil from a lower to a constantly ascending grade until 
the point of the completed course is reached. So it is 
with the Law. By teaching the sinner the nature of 
sin and its eternal effects upon the immortal soul, it 
leads him to a higher knowledge of his own terrible and 
lost condition, his helplessness in sin, and his utter in¬ 
ability to save himself from the power and consequences 
of his sin. 

Let us see how this comes to pass. Paul writes, 
“By the law is the knowledge of sin.” 5 This thought 
he developes thus, “I had not known sin, but by the 
law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, 
Thou shalt not covet.” 6 Again he writes, “But sin, 
that it might appear sin, working death in me by that 
which is good; that sin by the commandment might be¬ 
come exceeding sinful.” 7 So then, the Law of God, 
revealing the true nature of sin, convinces the soul that 
it is sinful in God’s sight and that as long as this sinful 

4 Gal. 3:24. 6 Rom. 3:20. *Rom. 7:7. 

7 Rom. 7:13. 


CHRIST, THE END FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS 17 


condition remains untouched by some power outside the 
Law the sinner is really dead in the sight of God. 

Could the Law reveal any more awful condition? 
Dead in the sight of God! Dead! finding no place in 
His divine mercy; dead! no place in His infinite com¬ 
passion; dead! no place in His quickening power. But 
place in His eternal justice; place in His stinging judg¬ 
ment ; place in His consuming wrath; place in His abid¬ 
ing condemnation. Place in hell; but no place in His 
kingdom of love and life! For the soul which sins 
feasts on the Law’s kiss of death. If your heart has 
not yet felt and answered the call of Christ to repent¬ 
ance, faith, and service, you are still under the Law. 
And the Law’s sweetest message to you is this, “The 
wages of sin is death.” 8 

In the second place, Christ is the End of the Law 
because He alone has completely fulfilled every demand 
of God’s righteousness as this is revealed to us in the 
Law. Christ said, “Think not that I am come to destroy 
the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but 
to fulfill.” 9 Thus He alone could give the supreme 
defy to all ages as He said: “Which of you convinceth 
me of sin?” 10 Having fulfilled every command and 
demand of the Law in His sinless, perfect life, Christ 
became the End of the Law. 

The supreme claim of Christ to an absolute fulfill¬ 
ment of God’s will is substantiated by a long line of 
witnesses reaching from the lowest depths of hell to 
the crowning heights of heaven. In the synagogue at 
Capernaum the “unclean devil,” speaking through the 
mouth of the man, cries out: “Let us alone; what have 

8 Rom. 6:23. * Matt. 5:1 7 - 10 John 8 :46. 


18 


WRECKS REBUILT 


we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou 
come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the 
Holy One of God.” 11 The three great sinners, Judas, 
Pilate, and the crucified thief, what is their testimony? 
Filled with remorse for his selling of Jesus, Judas 
“brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief 
priests and elders, saying, ... I have betrayed the 
innocent blood.” 12 After his close and searching exam¬ 
ination of Jesus, Pilate went out and “said to the chief 
priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.” 13 
And the thief on the cross, as he rebuked his companion 
in crime for his blasphemy against Jesus, said: “This 
man hath done nothing amiss.” 14 

The saints, who lived with Christ, who traveled with 
Him up and down the whole length and breadth of the 
Holy Land, who talked with Him, ate with Him, slept 
with Him, day in and day out for three years, what 
say they? Is their testimony summed up in the old 
proverb, “Familiarity breeds contempt?” Listen—in his 
letter “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, 
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” Peter writes as 
follows, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an ex¬ 
ample, that ye should follow in his steps: who did no 
sin.” 15 John, the beloved Apostle, who leaned on Jesus’ 
breast and heard the heart throbs of the divine Son 
of God, tells of Jesus that “He was manifested to take 
away our sins; and in him is no sin.” 16 

And then, from high above all, testifying from the 
throne of heaven, comes the voice of the Father, “This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 17 

11 Luke 4:34- “Matt. 27:3, 4. 13 Luke 23:4. “Luke 23:41. 

15 1 Pet. 2: 21, 22. 18 1 John 3:5. 17 Matt. 3: 17. 


CHRIST, THE END FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS 19 


Now what is the spiritual value of this for you? God 
gives you in Jesus Christ the perfect Man in order that 
you may have a pattern or living example for your own 
life. Christ says: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn 
of me.” 18 So Paul writes, “Let this mind be in you, 
which was also in Christ Jesus.” 19 Peter tells us of 
“Christ . . . leaving us an example, that ye should 

follow his steps.” 20 

Have you ever watched a little child try to draw 
pictures? When it has no pattern to follow how queer 
are its drawings. But give the child a simple picture 
to copy, or better still let it trace a picture, and how 
different the result, how much nearer to an exact re¬ 
production the imperfect powers of the child produce. 
So it is in your spiritual life. In Christ Jesus the 
heavenly Father has given you an exact pattern of the 
holy life He demands of you. If you lay your sinful 
life over the Christ-pattern, and by God’s Holy Spirit 
copy and trace that Pattern in your daily life and con¬ 
duct, you will soon begin to find yourself growing “in 
wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” 21 
And in that last great day of God’s judgment, when you 
will have to give an account of the deeds done in the 
flesh, you will not have to stand before Him, ashamed 
and condemned by the silent testimony of the deeds 
which have followed you. 

Lastly Christ is the end of the Law because He has 
destroyed its death-dealing power over everyone who 
believes in Him. In his letter to the Colossians, chap¬ 
ter two, verse four, Paul tells us how Christ blotted 
“out the handwriting of the ordinances that was against 

18 Matt. 11:29. 10 Phil. 2:5. "I Pet. 2:21. “Luke 2:52. 


20 


WRECKS REBUILT 


us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the 
way, nailing it to his cross.” 

In ancient times people did not have paper to write 
letters on as we have today, but wrote on tablets of 
wax, which they sent by private messengers or slaves. 
The person receiving this letter written on wax would 
often soften the surface of the tablet just received, 
knead, scrape and reroll it until the friend’s message 
was entirely blotted out, and then, on the same tablet, 
he would write and send back an answer. The Law 
writes on the sinner’s heart the message of God’s right¬ 
eous wrath and condemnation. This message is Death 
to the sinner. The Holy Spirit takes the sinner’s heart, 
kneads it with the Law’s condemning power, scrapes 
it with the Law’s tormenting touch in the conscience, 
and rolls it with the Law’s overwhelming demands for 
righteousness until the sinning soul is driven in repent¬ 
ance to the foot of the Cross where the precious blood 
of the Crucified blots out every trace of the old message 
of condemnation, and then, on the renewed surface of 
the old heart-tablet, the Holy Spirit writes the great 
and glorious message, the message prompted by God’s 
mercy and grace and called forth by the repentant sin¬ 
ner’s faith, i.e., “the gift of God is eternal life through 
Jesus Christ our Lord.” 22 

Let us now look on Christ as the end of the Law for 
Righteousness. 

The sinner needs a spiritual guide. He cannot know 
the will of God unless that will is revealed to him. The 
Law is this needed revelation of God’s will given to the 
sinner to show him the righteousness heaven demands. 

M Rom. 6:23. 


CHRIST, THE END FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS 21 


This is plainly seen in the 19th Psalm, verses 7-11, especi¬ 
ally verse 7, which reads, “the law of the Lord is perfect, 
converting the soul.” More accurately translated this 
verse would read, “The doctrine of the Lord is perfect, 
restoring the soul.” The Law is God’s doctrine or 
teaching about the perfection He requires of all. As 
you have already seen this perfection is made yours as 
the Law drives you to Christ and as Christ fulfills the 
Law in your place, giving you a perfect example of 
purity for you to copy. And as this perfection is made 
yours by Christ, it is applied for your benefit through 
the blood of the Cross blotting out the handwriting 
against you and washing you free from your sin. Thus 
Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness, and 
your soul redeemed by Him, is refilled, not with the 
letter, but with the spirit of the old Law, so that you 
have again that old fellowship of love, the essence of 
which is Christ’s righteousness, finding place in your 
life, as Paul says, “There is therefore now no condem¬ 
nation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk 
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of 
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could 
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God send¬ 
ing His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness 
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after 
the flesh, but after the Spirit.” 23 

Lastly we ask: “Who are the beneficiaries of Christ 
the end for Righteousness?” According to God’s plan 
Christ and His righteousness are for everyone. No one 

33 Rom. 8:1-4. 


22 


WRECKS REBUILT 


need be excluded in time or eternity from the righteous¬ 
ness founded by Christ. Christ says: “The Son of 
man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save 
them.” 24 Again He says: “God sent not his Son into 
the world to condemn the world; but that the world 
through him might be saved.” 25 And yet again He 
says: “I came not to judge the world, but to save the 
world.” 26 

The call of God in Christ Jesus and the outreach of 
His righteousness are worldwide and they are for 
everyone. Why then are not all benefitted and saved 
by His salvation? Because all will not hear the call 
of Christ and come to Him that they may be given 
this salvation. The lament of Christ over His holy 
city, Jerusalem, is as true today in its spiritual appli¬ 
cation as when He uttered those memorable words,— 
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often 
would I have gathered thy children, together, even as 
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not! Behold, your house is left unto you 
desolate.” 27 

Here is the secret: “How often would I . . . . 

and ye would not.” Christ calls, man will not hear. 
Man calls, Christ hears not. “Behold, your house is 
left unto you desolate.” “This is the condemnation, 
that light is come into the world, and men loved dark¬ 
ness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither 
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” 28 

“Luke 9:56. “John 3:17. “John 12:47. 

” Matt. 23:37, 38. “John 3:19, 20. 


CHRIST, THE END FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS 23 


“Ye will not come, to me, that ye might have life.” 29 

Because men’s evil nature and unrighteous deeds so 
control their spiritual destiny that they will not come 
to Christ according to God’s universal plan, God has 
limited His salvation and gives it only to those who 
will believe on His Son. Thus Christ says “Go thy 
way; thy faith hath made thee whole.” 30 Arise, go 
thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.” 31 “Thy faith 
hath saved thee; go in peace.” 32 “I am the resurrec¬ 
tion, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” 33 

O thou sin-stricken and sin-laden soul “be not faith¬ 
less, but believing.” 34 “Christ is the end of the law for 
righteousness to every one that believeth,” 35 for “God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.” 36 Amen. 

29 John 5 : 40. 30 Mark 10: 52. 81 Luke 17:19. 

33 Luke 7:50. 33 John 11:25, 26. 34 John 20:27. 

36 Rom. 10:4. 88 John 3:16. 


SIN DESCRIBED AND DEFEATED 


Gal. 5 : 1 . Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ 
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of 
bondage. 

There are in this world just two classes of people, 
those who are lost and those who are saved. Or, to 
put it otherwise, the world is made up of lost sinners 
and redeemed sinners. Therefore, to whichever class you 
belong you are still a sinner and must need the con¬ 
tinued presentation and application of God’s Holy Word. 
The message, which I bring to you now, is intended for 
all sinners, redeemed or lost, that those of you, who 
are firm in the faith may give heed to the dangers con¬ 
stantly surrounding and threatening your spiritual exist¬ 
ence, and that those of you, who have not surrendered 
to Christ, may be shown the true nature of the sin 
in which you are living, its eternal consequences for the 
soul, and the way to escape the blighting effect of ser¬ 
vice for the devil. 

The words of Paul give us first, a threefold definition 
or description of sin. He says: “Be not entangled again 
with the yoke of bondage.” According to these words 
of the Holy Spirit sin is an entanglement, a yoke, and 
a bondage. 

Perhaps you have watched a spider spinning his web. 
First he crawls out on some twig or beam. Then he be¬ 
gins to spin a long, silken thread barely visible to the 
naked eye. As this thread gets longer and longer it 
is caught by the breeze, blown from side to side, catch- 
24 


SIN DESCRIBED AND DEFEATED 


25 


ing at last on some twig, where it holds fast, twining 
itself with an unbreakable hold. As soon as this first 
thread has caught hold somewhere, the spider sets to 
work spinning another fine, silken cord, which in turn 
finds a hold on some other twig. And so he goes on 
working, spinning one thread after another, each weak 
in itself and barely visible, each catching and holding 
fast somewhere, until a firm foundation has been laid 
for the weaving of the body of the web. 

The foundation laid, the spider runs down one of the 
threads and begins the weaving of the web. In and out, 
around and around he goes, never skipping a single 
foundation thread, never missing a connecting link until 
his work is done. The web finished, the spider hides 
behind some leaf, or in some crack, and patiently waits 
the coming of his victim. 

Now along comes a heedless bug, joyously winging 
his flight, supremely happy in the enjoyment of God’s 
sunlight. Suddenly he feels his flight brought to a 
halt. His wings begin to stick to his body and his legs 
are grasped by a something he cannot shake off. The 
more he struggles, the more tightly he is held. He is 
in the entangling web! His struggles are telegraphed 
along the web’s meshes to the lurking spider, which 
suddenly darts out of his hiding place, rushes toward 
his victim, and stinging the poor bug with his sharp 
dart, injects into him a death-spreading poison. The 
bug’s efforts to escape become weaker and weaker as 
the poison spreads through his body. He breaks a 
strand here, and a thread there, in his death agony; but 
all in vain; he falls a prey to his own heedlessness and 
the spider’s cunning web and poisonous power. Then 


26 


WRECKS REBUILT 


the spider wraps his victim in a silken shroud and carries 
him away for a feast. 

And that is sin! The devil-spider throws out into your 
soul a little, soft, silken habit, an almost invisible thread 
of sin. Tossed here and there by the wind of his cun¬ 
ning, the little sin finds lodgment in your life and gives 
the devil his first hold on your soul. From this first 
sin he throws out a second, and a third thread, and 
then thread after thread until the framework of his web 
is fixed in your body, mind, and soul. Then he begins 
to spin his web of iniquity in your life. This done he 
hides himself behind the leaf of excuse, or in the crack 
of self-righteousness, until you, like the heedless bug, 
hurl yourself against the hidden web. And then, 
struggle as you will, break a sin here and a sin there 
as you may, your momentary victory over some sin, 
your passing triumph over some habit of hell’s form¬ 
ing, each struggle, each breaking away, each victory and 
triumph but bind you more securely in the web, and 
when your strength begins to ebb, and you can barely 
breathe, the devil will fill your spirit with his hellish 
poison till your doom is sealed. Once his victim, you 
are carried away by the devil that he may feast on you 
for ever and ever. 

Again, says Paul, sin is a yoke. Perhaps some of you 
have lived in the country and know from personal ex¬ 
perience what a yoke is and for what it is used. A 
double bow of hard wood, strong, unbreakable, used to 
bind together the oxen which do the heavy work about 
the farm. 

I remember as a boy seeing a beautiful yoke of oxen 
owned by my grandfather. Held together in spite of 


SIN DESCRIBED AND DEFEATED 


27 


themselves by the wooden yoke about their necks, they 
drew the stone-boat, and plowed the heavy clay meadows, 
harrowed the stony hill-lands, or hauled the heavy, 
tricky logs in winter. Their life, from one end of the 
year to the other, was one round of the heaviest kind 
of toil, always under the most trying circumstances. 

Sometimes one of the oxen would become vicious 
and try to break away from the yoke that bound him 
to his companion-in-toil. How he would pull and strain 
and kick in his battle for freedom from the yoke and 
its burden of toil. But all in vain! The yoke would 
not give or break, the load dragged him back, his com¬ 
panion pulled against him, his master goaded him, till, 
exhausted by his useless rebellion, he would fall, pant¬ 
ing to the ground, only to rise again to do his share of 
the daily farm labor. 

And that is sin! An unyielding yoke, which binds 
you to hell, and makes you pull hell’s loads and do hell’s 
work. O, what a load that is! what a work that is! 
how your heart has rebelled against it! how you have 
struggled, and strained, and kicked against its galling 
presence! But did you not find, in spite of every 
struggle, the yoke still about your soul, the burden of 
sin still attached to your life? Did you not find, time 
and again, that exhausted as you were by your struggles 
against your hell-master and his lashing of your spirit 
because of your rebellion against him, you had to rise 
and to pull again that terrible burden of sin and carry 
again that galling yoke of iniquity? 

I recall the end of one of my grandfather’s yoke of 
oxen. Down the middle of the farm ran a lane, which 
was cut in two by a narrow wooden bridge spanning a 


28 


WRECKS REBUILT 


stream that traversed the farm. One day one of the 
oxen, which was considerably larger and much more 
powerful than his yokefellow, started to run away. For 
a few minutes the smaller ox hung back and checked 
the mad flight of the larger and stronger ox. But it 
was only for a few minutes. Soon the superior weight 
and strength of the other ox began to tell. His panic 
of fear and spirit of rebellion were caught by the other. 
Then both raced wildly down the lane toward the nar¬ 
row bridge. They reach the bridge. The smaller ox 
is crowded to the edge; he loses his footing, but some¬ 
how struggles back to the bridge; then the larger ox 
sways to the other edge, hangs for a moment above 
the stream, and suddenly lunges into the water carry¬ 
ing his weaker companion with him. Once in the water 
the larger ox treads the smaller down, breaking bone 
after bone, crushing out his life, and by the time help 
comes the weaker companion is dead, bruised, crushed, 
drowned by his yokefellow. 

And that is sin! The yoke, which so binds you to 
the devil, that when he starts his mad career toward 
destruction you must go with him whether you will or 
no, because you are the weaker of the two. You reach 
some great crisis in your life, some supreme tempta¬ 
tion, you struggle back to safety for a moment, but the 
unbroken yoke leaves you in Satan’s power and at his 
mercy, so he hurls you to the other side of the bridge, 
and pulls you off into the stream where he tramples, 
crushes, and drowns you for all eternity. 

Lastly, Paul says that sin is bondage. Bondage is 
slavery. We like to persuade ourselves that we are 
freemen and freewomen, in slavery to no one, masters 


SIN DESCRIBED AND DEFEATED 


29 


of our own destinies. Would that this were true! But 
it is not, as is proved by the marks and the scars of sin, 
so visible on many weary faces here tonight. You, 
who bear these marks and scars, you, in whose eyes 
is that haunted look; you, whose body droops with 
weariness; you, on whose face is written the handwrit¬ 
ing of a useless battle, I ask you: “Have you marked 
and scarred yourself? Have you graven that haunted, 
weary, hopeless expression on your own face and in your 
own body?” I challenge you, is this your own, willing 
work? If it is I can but say that you are mad or fools 
so to mark and scar and burden your life! No, these 
are not your willing work, but the marks of hell’s irons 
about your life, the proofs that in sin you are in slavery, 
a slavery which scars deeply and marks surely. 

Such is sin,—a web of entanglement, a yoke of toil 
and destruction, a bondage, which marks and mars. 

But there is another side to the divine truth. Not 
only is Paul permitted to describe sin for us, but he 
is also given power to point us to the way of sin’s de¬ 
feat. And this is the way,—Stand fast therefore in the 
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. 

There is a liberty possible for every one; a liberty 
from sin’s death-dealing rule; a liberty to live the fullest 
life unhampered by the power of hell. The Psalmist 
sings: “I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts.” 1 
The evangelical prophet announces: “The Spirit of the 
Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed 
me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent 
me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty 
to the captives, and the opening of prison to them that 
1 Ps. 119:45. 


30 


WRECKS REBUILT 


are bound/’ 2 The Apostle tells about “the glorious 
liberty of the children of God,” 3 bids all know that we 
“have been called to liberty,” 4 and testifies that “where 
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 5 

The one grand purpose of Christ’s coming into the 
world was that all, every one, could have life, even a*s 
He says: “I am come that they might have life, and 
that they might have it more abundantly.” 6 Can you 
imagine such a life where there is no liberty? Can the 
plant grow straight and vigorously if it is crushed to 
the ground by some weight? or can the seed pierce the 
ground and reach up to God’s sunlight and drink in 
His refreshing dew if it cannot penetrate the hard crust 
that shuts in its life powers? Neither can your soul 
rise above things which are mean, low, and sinful to 
a life which is filled with things worth while unless you 
taste the liberty of Christ. This liberty alone, and only 
this liberty can enable you to shake yourself free from 
the bondage of sin. 

There is a liberty for you if you will have it. You 
cannot buy it; you cannot earn it; no one can leave 
it or give it to you. It is a free gift, a token of divine 
mercy given freely and lovingly to one and only one 
class of persons, the repentant, believing sinners. 

You must hear the call of Christ, Who pleads with 
you now to accept Him as your Lord, your God, and 
your Saviour. You must heed the pleadings of the 
Good Shepherd, Who would free you and take you to 
His heart to give you peace, power, and purpose in 
life. You must hold fast to Him, Who is the only Way 

a Isa. 61: i. 8 Rom. 8:21. 4 Gal. 5:13. 

“II Cor. 3:17. ®John 10:10. 


SIN DESCRIBED AND DEFEATED 


31 


to the Father, the Truth that sets you free, the Life 
which is the life of all men, the Light which shines 
along your path to keep you from stumbling and falling 
again under the power of the old life of sin. 

You know you want to be free, now, this very night. 
You know you want to leave here feeling that you 
have lost forever that terrible weight which has so long 
crushed your heart, burdened your conscience, and 
marred your life; free from the poverty of body and 
soul; free to breathe God’s air without fearing a living 
soul, for “who is he that will harm you, if ye become 
followers of that which is good?” 7 Will you not come? 
Will you not take of this liberty of Christ’s and stand¬ 
ing fast in His power be free forever in this world and 
in that to come from that entangling yoke of bondage 
which now is making your life a hell? 

' I Pet. 3:13. 


THE CRY THAT SAVES 


Psalm 51 : 1 - 4 , 7 - 12 . Have mercy upon me, O God, according to 
thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender 
mercies blot out my transgressions. 

Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from 
my sin. 

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before 
me. 

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy 
sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be 
clear when thou judgest. 

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall 
be whiter than snow. 

Make me to hear joy and gladness: that the bones which thou 
hast broken may rejoice. 

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit 
within me. 

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy 
Spirit from me. 

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with 
thy free Spirit. 

It is a sad truth of human history that men must 
pass through the hard school of experience. The lov¬ 
ing parent may tell the child that fire burns, but until 
the child has experienced this fact for himself he will 
play about the dangerous place. This sad truth finds 
its expression in our spiritual life as well. God said to 
Adam: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely 
eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die .” 1 Then one day the 
temptation to enter the school of experience came and 

1 Gen. 2:16, 17. 


32 


THE CRY THAT SAVES 


33 


Satan said! “Ye shall not surely die; for God doth 
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall 
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 
evil.” 2 So Adam and Eve entered through the gate of 
temptation and enrolled themselves in a hard and bitter 
school, under a stern and unrelenting teacher, and the 
first lesson they learned was the meaning of God’s curse 
against and punishment for sin. And this is the lesson. 
“Because thou hast . . . eaten of the tree, of which 

I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; 
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou 
eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles 
shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb 
of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it 
wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return . . . So he drove out the man; and he 

placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and 
a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the 
way of the tree of life.” 3 

Many years after Adam had passed through the bitter 
school of experience a young shepherd lad was called 
by the prophet of God to lead the children of Israel to 
victory and service. He heard and heeded the call, 
entered the court of King Saul, and began his training 
for leadership. The nights of meditation under the 
great dome of God’s temple of out-of-doors followed 
him through the long training under the moody and 
evil Saul and saved the young David from every temp¬ 
tation. At last Saul was called to the bar of divine 
justice and David ascended the throne of God’s chosen 

* Gen. 3:4, 5 - * Gen. 3:17-24, passim. 


34 


WRECKS REBUILT 


people. With power and wealth, came many severe 
temptations. Again the young king rose triumphant 
over Satan and followed after the will of God, until 
one day the devil found David’s weak spot and in an 
unguarded moment the king became a slave to sin and 
entered the hard school of experience. 

Let me tell you the story, briefly,—David had among 
his faithful subjects one Uriah, who had as his wife 
a most beautiful woman. One evening, after David 
had returned weary from directing his army against the 
enemy, he went to the roof of the palace to rest. As 
he “walked upon the roof of the king’s house,” 4 his 
eyes fell upon the wife of Uriah, “and the woman was 
very beautiful to look upon.” 5 As he gazed his heart 
fell before the attack of Satan and David lusted after 
Uriah’s wife. Lust conquered him. Friendship to 
Uriah he cast aside. God’s commandment, “Thou shalt 
not covet thy neighbor’s wife,” 6 he broke, while he 
scorned the Law, which says, “Thou shalt not commit 
adultery.” 7 So he began to scheme how he might get 
possession of his neighbor’s wife. Entering the school 
of Satan, David learns the lesson only too well. He 
sends to Joab, the captain of his army, and secretly in¬ 
structs him, saying, “Set ye Uriah in the forefront of 
the hottest battle, and retire ye from him that he may 
be smitten, and die.” 8 The king’s command is obeyed 
and Uriah is killed in battle. To his sin David adds 
still more iniquity in breaking the Commandment, “Thou 
shalt not kill.” 9 Uriah out of the way, the rest is simple, 
and David secures the desire of his passion, for “when 

* II Sam. 11:2. B II Sam. 11:2. *Exod. 20:17. 

7 Exod. 20:14. 8 II Sam. 11:15. *Exod. 20:13. 


THE CRY THAT SAVES 


35 


the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was 
dead, she mourned her husband. And when the 
mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his 
house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son.” 10 

So far so good. Uriah is out the way, David has 
his heart’s desire. But! Yes, that little “but” comes 
in again. But,—David has forgotten that 
When man in sin possesses, 

Then God in love distresses. 

He has forgotten that great divinely given truth,— 
“Be sure your sin will find you out.” 11 Thus the story 
goes on. “But the thing that David had done displeased 
the Lord. And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And 
he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two 
men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The 
rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds; but 
the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, 
which he had bought and nourished up; and it grew 
up together with him, and with his children; it did eat 
of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay 
in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And 
there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared 
to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress 
for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but 
took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man 
that was come to him. 

“And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the 
man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the 
man that hath done this shall surely die; and he shall 
restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, 
and because he had no pity.” 12 

10 II Sam. 11:27. “Num. 32:23. 12 II Sam. 11:27-12:6. 


36 


WRECKS REBUILT 


Now listen, listen well, every one of you, to the hard, 
bitter, unsparing lesson David learned in the hard, bit¬ 
ter, unsparing school of experience. Listen! “And 
Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith 
the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, 
and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; and I gave 
thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy 
bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; 
and if that had been too little, I would moreover have 
given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast 
thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil 
in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the 
sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast 
slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine 
house; because thou hast despised me. . . . Thus 

saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee 
out of thine own house. . . . For thou didst it 

secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and 
before the sun.” 13 

A terrible history with a terrible end! A hard lesson 
in the school of experience! But given to you now for 
a purpose; recounted at some length, and almost en¬ 
tirely in God’s own way and words that you might ap¬ 
preciate and profit by the lessons which David gives us 
in that remarkable Psalm, the 51st, written immediately 
after his repentant, sinful soul had been spared as he 
cried out in anguish unto Nathan, “I have sinned against 
the Lord.” 14 To you now, David cries, cries with the 
saving knowledge gained from his own bitter experi¬ 
ence in the school of Satan, gained at so great a cost, 

18 II Sam. 12: 7-12, passim. 14 II Sam. 12:13. 


THE CRY THAT SAVES 


37 


the sword and evil upon his own loved ones, gained 
that you and I may now profit by his experience, turn 
from our lusts and sinning, and live again. Hear then 
the cry that saves. 

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to 
Thy loving kindness; according unto the mul¬ 
titude of Thy tender mercies blot out my 

TRANSGRESSIONS. WASH ME THOROUGHLY FROM 
MINE INIQUITY, AND CLEANSE ME FROM MY SIN. 
For I ACKNOWLEDGE MY TRANSGRESSIONS I AND MY 
SIN IS EVER BEFORE ME. AGAINST ThEE, THEE 
ONLY, HAVE I SINNED, AND DONE THIS EVIL IN THY 

sight: that Thou mightest be justified when 
Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou 

JUDGEST. 

Purge me with hyssop, and i shall be clean ; 

WASH ME, AND I SHALL BE WHITER THAN SNOW. 

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the 

BONES WHICH THOU HAST BROKEN MAY REJOICE. 

Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all 

MINE INIQUITIES. CREATE IN ME A CEAN HEART, O 

God; and renew a right spirit within me. 
Cast me not away from Thy presence; and 
take not Thy holy Spirit from me. Restore 

UNTO ME THE JOY OF THY SALVATION; AND UP¬ 
HOLD me with Thy free Spirit. 

The first great saving truth which comes to you from 
this anguished cry of David is this,—Sin is a matter 
of personal responsibility; sin is something in your life 
which you cannot shift to someone else. This is clearly 


38 


WRECKS REBUILT 


indicated by the development that David gives to 
Nathan’s accusation. Nathan says: “Thou art the 
man.” David says, “I have sinned.” In the part of 
this Psalm, used for our text, the personal pronoun 
“I” occurs no less than twenty-four times in one form 
or other, while the personal pronoun “Thee” occurs 
fourteen times. In the entire Psalm of but nineteen 
verses, the pronoun “I,” in its various forms, occurs 
thirty-five times, and “Thee” in its various forms, just 
twenty-nine times. Why this frequent use of I, my, 
mine, me; of Thee, thou, thine, thy? For just one 
reason,—that you may come to realize and appreciate 
the personal responsibility for your life of sin. 

The sinner likes to shift the blame and the conse¬ 
quences of his sin. How well I know this; how well 
you know this. I meet a man in some hospital ward 
and his excuse is: “My friends led me astray.” I find 
a man behind prison bars and he pleads as his spiritual 
alibi: “My boss was a crook.” And so on. Your 
conscience begins to condemn you and you blame 
Society; your heart speaks to condemn you and you 
blame the small wage you received and offer this as an 
excuse for robbing your employer or for your life of 
shameful sin. 

But you cannot shift the burden or escape the conse¬ 
quences of your life of sin in this way. “Thou art the 
man.” You, your own individual personal self. Just 
simply you are the one who is the sinner and no one 
else. Society, small wage, friends, parents, employer, 
rotten politics, unfaithful police officers, an unjust penal 
system, all these and many other things may have in¬ 
vited you to sin and made it easy for you to sin, but 


THE CRY THAT SAVES 


39 


you did not have to sin unless you wanted to. “Thou 
art the man.” You had to make the choice. “Thou 
art the man.” You had to take that first drink. “Thou 
art the man.” You had to steal that money. “Thou 
art the man.” You! You! and only you! “And David 
said unto Nathan, I have sinned.” “And the publican, 
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes 
unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, “God 
be merciful to me a sinner.” 15 

The second truth that comes from this cry of David 
is this,—every sin is against God. Many a sinner thinks 
God is not personally interested in his sin. He thinks 
God lets the act of sin influence only the one sinned 
against. But sin rises higher than its mere human and 
moral influences. Every sin you commit is not simply 
against yourself, or against another, it is a direct sin 
against God. David says to Nathan: “I have sinned 
against God.” To God he says: “Against thee, thee 
only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” 
Who gave the law you broke when you used your body 
for those vile and filthy practices? Who gave the law 
you broke when you became a thief? Who gave the 
law you broke when in a drunken frenzy you abused 
your wife and family? Was it the State, or Society, 
or what? It was God, and only God, Who founded the 
law against which you rebelled and for which rebellion 
you are now suffering the loss of your personal liberty. 
This is what God’s Holy Book says: “And the Lord 
said unto Moses, Come up to me in the mount, and be 
there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, 
and commandments which I have written; that thou 


15 Luke 18:13. 


40 


WRECKS REBUILT 


mayest teach them.” 16 Again God’s Book says: “Thou 
shalt not revile the judges, nor curse the ruler of thy 
people.” 17 When Paul is moved by the Spirit of God 
he writes, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher 
powers. For there is no power but.of God; the powers 
that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore re¬ 
sisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God, and 
they that resist shall receive to themselves condemna¬ 
tion. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but 
to the evil. . . . For he is the minister of God to 

thee ... he beared not the sword in vain: for he 
is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath upon 
him that doeth evil.” 18 

David thought his sin had ended with the home he 
wrecked, the life he destroyed, and the purity he 
marred. But God thought otherwise and sent Nathan 
to say: “Thou art the man.” So David learned an¬ 
other hard lesson, namely, that every sin in thought, 
word, or deed, is a sin directed against God’s will and 
holy laws and therefore directed against God. “Against 
thee, thee only, have I sinned.” 

As soon as David came to realize that he was per¬ 
sonally responsible for his sin and that he had sinned 
directly against God, his heart was filled with anguish 
and repentance. He felt not only how terrible a thing 
it is to fall into the hands of the living God, but also 
how terrible a thing it is to fall out of the hands of 
the living God and through sin against Him merit His 
just wrath against sin. How shall he escape, how shall 
the old union with his God be re-established, how shall 
he be forgiven? This is the great question troubling 


18 Exod. 24 : 12 . 


18 Rom. 13 : 1 - 4 , passim. 


17 Exod. 22 : 28 . 


THE CRY THAT SAVES 


41 


David’s soul. David has pronounced his own doom,— 
“As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing 
shall surely die.” His soul cries out: “Have mercy 
upon me, O God.” Yes, have mercy, is the sinner’s 
plea! But how can the sinner lay hold on this mercy? 

God is merciful to David and leads him to see that 
no sin can be forgiven until the first step is taken. If 
you would feel the mercy of God you must say with 
David: “I acknowledge my transgressions.” Where 
there is no confession of sin to God, no acknowledgment 
of rebellion against Him, and Him alone, there is no 
room for mercy. As soon as David said: “I have 
sinned against the Lord;” the reply came back straight 
from the throne of God: “The Lord also hath put away 
thy sin; thou shalt not die.” 19 The Law of God says: 
“And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these 
things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that 
thing.” 20 God’s promise in the Law is, “If they shall 
confess their iniquity . . . with their trespass 

which they trespassed against me . . . then will I 

remember my covenant . . .” 21 In the 32nd Psalm 

David says: “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and 
mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my 
transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the 
iniquity of my sin.” The beloved Apostle, who leaned 
on Jesus’ breast and felt the beating of that merciful 
heart, writes, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness.” 22 Unless you acknowledge before 
God that you have sinned against him, unless you make 

19 II Sam. 12:13. 20 Lev. 5:5. 21 Lev. 26: 40-42, passim . 

22 1 John 'i: 9. 


42 


WRECKS REBUILT 


humble confession at the foot of the Cross, you can 
expect no mercy from Him Who died for your sins, 
or from the Father Who sent His Son to give His life 
for you. 

With the recognition of sin as a personal responsi¬ 
bility against a personal God and a frank, full, and re¬ 
pentant confession to God of sin, come the gift of God’s 
cleansing, the forgiveness of sins, and the power to be¬ 
gin life anew. 

David prays for God to purge, to wash, to cleanse, 
to create a clean heart in him. How great must be the 
dirt of sin, the filthiness of unrighteousness when the 
sinner feels it necessary to use so many different words 
to describe what his sinning soul needs of God. No 
wonder the servant of God is compelled to confess: 
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our right¬ 
eousnesses are as filthy rags.” 23 And why is the linen 
of your righteousness so unclean? Because your heart 
has not kept its hold on God. “Create in me a clean 
heart,” prays David. A clean heart. Christ says: 
“That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the 
man. For from within, out of the heart of man, pro¬ 
ceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, 
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these 
things come from within, and defile the man.” 24 Yes, 
that old, wicked, lurking place of rebellion against God, 
that heart, which “deviseth wicked imaginations,” 25 
that heart, which “is deceitful above all things, and des¬ 
perately wicked,” 26 must be purged, washed, cleansed, 

23 Isa 64: 6. 24 Mark 7: 20-23. 25 Prov. 6:18. 

28 Jer. 17:9. 


THE CRY THAT SAVES 


43 


re-created by the power of God before the new life can 
be lived. 

Who may call himself a child of God, a follower of 
the Son of God? Only he in whom God has created 
a clean heart. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the 
Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that 
hath clean hands, and a pure heart.” 27 “Blessed are 
the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” 28 Give your 
heart to God now; let Him bathe it in the precious blood 
of His Son, Jesus Christ; let Him make of you a new 
creation in this same Jesus, Who loved you, and gave 
Himself for you, that you might know that there is for¬ 
giveness with God and a new righteousness in the 
Spirit. 

And now, what comes with the new heart, the clean 
heart, the re-created heart? The Psalmist tells us,— 
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation: and uphold 
me with thy free spirit.” With the pardon and the 
cleansing come joy and constancy. Happiness and 
faithfulness in the time of testing, trial, and temptation, 
these are the supreme gifts, which God gives you with 
that re-created heart. “They that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with 
wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and 
they shall walk and not faint.” 29 “My grace is suffi¬ 
cient for thee: for my power is fulfilled in weakness. 
Most gladly therefore,” says Paul, “will I rather glory 
in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest 
upon me.” 30 “Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is 
he.” 31 “Happy is the man that feareth alway.” 32 “The 

37 Ps. 24:3. 38 Matt. 5:8. 29 Isa. 40:31. 

30 II Cor. 12: 9. 31 Prov. 16:20. 33 Prov. 28:14. 


44 


WRECKS REBUILT 


meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the 
poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of 
Israel .” 33 “My servants shall sing for joy of 
heart .” 34 “These things have I spoken unto you, that 
my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might 
be full .” 35 “Your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no 
man taketh from you .” 36 

These are the words and promises of Almighty God. 
How they should invite you to give Him a trial in your 
life! How they should call you to cast yourself at the 
foot of the Cross! What is there in your sin that 
gives you such hope as these promises of God? What 
is there in your present life that gives you any right 
to think of the time when you will find peace for your 
soul, strength for your spirit, and joy and constancy 
for your heart? You know there is no such hope, 
no such expectancy for you outside of Christ, the sav¬ 
ing, keeping, blessing Son of God. Why, then, will 
you hesitate longer to accept Him? 

Jesus, Thy words alone impart 
Eternal life: on these I live; 

Here sweeter comforts cheer my heart, 

Than all the powers of nature give. 

Here let my constant feet abide; 

Thou art the true, the living Way; 

Let Thy good Spirit be my guide 
To the bright realms of endless day. 

The various forms that men devise, 

To shake my faith with treacherous art, 

I scorn as vanity and lies, 

And bind Thy Gospel to my heart. 

** Isa. 29:19. 34 Isa. 65:14. 35 John 15:11. 

88 John 16:22. 


THE PATHWAY OF SUFFERING* 


Isa. 53 : 4-6. HSurely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our 
sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and 
afflicted. 

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for 
our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and 
with his stripes we are healed. 

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one 
to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of 
us all. 

The verses of our text bring before us very clearly 
the vicarious suffering of Christ Jesus,—a truth of 
Scripture not palatable to the modern spirit of self¬ 
exaltation and the modern theory of salvation by edu¬ 
cation and intellectualism. 

The words of the Prophet show a gradation of suf¬ 
fering on the part of the Servant of Jehovah, a grada¬ 
tion which culminates in and is summarized by the 
words, “and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of 
us all.” This passage gives us the clew to our present 
meditation and leads us to the Pathway of Suffering 
(i) the Revealer of God; (2) the Discloser of Sin; 
(3) the Healer of Iniquity. 

1 . The Pathway of Suffering as the Revealer of 
God. 

Among the peoples of the earth three general views 
have prevailed as the expression of their religious 
aspirations. Among the heathen, savage tribes of the 

* Reprinted from the Author’s Fivefold Pathway. 

45 


46 


WRECKS REBUILT 


jungle, the conviction is that their gods are angry with 
them, that they must be appeased, and that to secure 
their favor and stem the flood of their anger not only 
worship but also sacrifice must be made. To these poor 
people their gods are a horde of wrathful, vengeful 
beings lying in wait to injure and slay as opportunity 
affords. Thus it often happens that while in the frenzy 
of religious excitement and out of anxiety these savage 
people cast their very flesh and blood, their tender in¬ 
fants, into raging mountain torrents or into blazing 
fires, and leave them in the depths of the forest as a 
sacrifice to pacify and placate a wrathful god. 

Another view is found among the nations of classic 
culture, as the Greeks and the Romans. Here human 
sacrifice plays no role, and the gods are no longer 
wrathful, but merely capricious. These gods have all 
the failings of the people themselves. They are not all¬ 
wise, all-present, all-powerful, but live on Mt. Olympus, 
where they hold high feast and holiday, eating, drink¬ 
ing, quarreling, sleeping, etc., even as mortals. 

These gods take some share in the doings of their 
worshipers, but in so doing they pick out certain favor¬ 
ites, some popular hero of the day, some wise man of 
the nation, and aid him to the neglect of the common 
people as a whole. The god Mars selects the crafty 
leader of some robber band and assists him in his ex¬ 
ploits; Jupiter, the king of the gods, sees some beau¬ 
tiful maiden, and burning with desire for her, steals 
her away and adds her to his ever-increasing harem; 
Venus is jealous of the beauty of a sister goddess, and 
by bribing Paris with the promise of the most beautiful 
woman in the world for a wife, she both wins the 


THE PATHWAY OF SUFFERING 


47 


crown of beauty and causes the destruction of Troy. 

The third conception of God is the child of rational¬ 
ism. The highest it can ever rise in its reach after 
truth is to a realization of the might of God. Rational¬ 
ism has never gone beyond God as the Creator, with a 
dim view of the orderliness of God. It can see and 
fathom that “the heavens declare the glory of God; 
and the firmament showeth his handiwork .” 1 It may 
even have a vague longing “That they should seek the 
Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him .” 2 
But alas the words of Job are only too true,—“Ganst 
thou by searching find out God ?” 3 And so it happens 
that the rationalist can rise no higher in his religious 
aspirations than to God as the absentee Creator. 

In sharp contrast to these views, coming from man’s 
vain Teachings of reason and the innate impulse to wor¬ 
ship a Higher Being, stands the revelation of God we 
have in the sufferings of Christ. In the first place we 
see that our God is not One who stands aloof and is 
wrathful because we have sinned against Him. Our 
God is that God who comes to us in love and mercy 
in spite of our sinning against Him! What an exalted 
view of God! What a picture of love, proof against 
every injury and insult of sin! The insulted and in¬ 
jured One draws near to the insulter and injurer, not 
with wrath to destroy, but with love to save! Such a 
view of God could never have come to us from the 
mind of man. It must be the result of revelation, and 
that of the highest kind, even the sending of the very 
Son of God to us. 

And the sending of the Son shows us another differ- 

*Ps. 19:1. 2 Acts 27:17. 3 Job 11:17. 


48 


WRECKS REBUILT 


ence between the God of revelation and the gods of 
reason. Not only does the God of revelation come, 
but He gives the sacrifice which is necessary to appease 
His injured justice and insulted holiness. We do not 
have to give to Him, but He gives to us that sacrifice 
that shall meet and satisfy all the requirements of His 
justice and His holiness. 

Then look at the nature of this sacrificial gift. What 
is it? a gift of the fruits of the earth? a gift of gold? 
a child of ours? No, it is none of these. It is His 
own, His only-begotten Son, the very apple of His eye. 
How sublime an expression of love! 

Thus the Pathway of Suffering reveals as the true 
God, the God Who seeks to save those who are lost 
through their sinning against Him, the God, Who seeks 
no sacrifice from us, but Who gives the sacrifice, even 
His only-begotten Son. What a picture of mercy, grace, 
and love! A picture that human reason and the Teach¬ 
ings of man in religious aspirations sought for in vain 
for centuries, and which comes to us only through the 
revealing power of Christ’s sufferings. 

Yet, how often, we, the very ones for whom Christ 
suffered, the very ones to whom God so graciously and 
lovingly reveals Himself to save us from ourselves and 
the consequences of our follies, yet how often we turn 
our backs upon Him Who loves us, only to re-crucify 
Him with the hardness of our heart. Ah! it ought not 
to be so. And it would not be so if we would come to 
God daily in the reading of His Word and in prayer. 


THE PATHWAY OF SUFFERING 


49 


2. The Pathway of Suffering as the Discloser 
of Sin. 

Christ’s sufferings reveal to us not only the being and 
nature of God, but also the being and nature of sin. 
The sufferings of Christ disclose sin to us first of all 
as a reality. The existence of sin is a fact. Human 
reason, in its exaltation of self, seeks to explain away 
the reality of sin. Christian Science is a fine example 
of this inherent trait of human reason to deny sin. 
Mrs. Eddy says, “man is incapable of sin . . . the 

real man cannot depart from holiness.” “Evil is but an 
illusion, and error has no real basis, it is a false belief.” 
(S. & H., 103rd ed., pp. 471, 476.) But if this view 
of sin be correct, if sin has no actual existence, then 
why did God become incarnate, why did He suffer and 
die? The denial of the reality of sin inevitably leads 
to but one end, the denial of the incarnation of Christ 
. . . . The incarnation, without the reality of sin, 

is meaningless. 

Again the sufferings of Christ reveal to us the nature 
of sin. If sin required for its forgiveness the coming 
of the Son to suffer and to die, what a terrible thing sin 
must be! It cannot be a mere surface veneer, easily 
scraped off. It cannot be, as some hold, the remains 
of our supposed animal state, which is gradually to be 
worked, “evoluted” out of us generation by generation. 
It must be a taint, deeply ingrained in the very nature 
of each of us. Yea, it must be part of our very being 
itself. 

It is a fixed principle of courts of justice that the 
penalty must exactly fit the crime if the ends of justice 
are to be met. In view of this principle look at the 


50 


WRECKS REBUILT 


penalty God demands for sin. What is this penalty? 
anything we can think, or do, or say, or give? No! it 
is the very heart’s blood of His own Son. In view of 
such a penalty can we look lightly on sin? 

And lastly, Christ’s sufferings disclose the extent of 
sin’s power. This is found in the words,—“us all.” 
There is not one man, woman, or child who does not 
come under the power of sin. There is no one who 
dares to face God and say, “I have no sin. I am holy 
and pure.” The dominion of sin is universal, both as 
to time and extent. Sin has reigned since the fall of 
Adam and will reign over the children of the world 
till the consummation of the Kingdom. It embraces 
every one, and continues from the moment of concep¬ 
tion till the soul stands, before its Creator and its God. 
“I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother 
conceive me,” laments the Psalmist. (Ps. 51:5.) “All 
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every 
one to his own way,” sighs Isaiah (Is. 53:6.) “The 
scripture hath concluded all under sin,” asserts the 
Apostle. (Gal. 3:22.) 

Where then is our boasting? Shall we continue to 
glory in sin? Rather, let us cast ourselves prostrate, 
in humility and penitence, before the throne of God, 
and cry, “Lord, have mercy upon me, the chief of 
sinners.” 

3. The Pathway of Suffering as the Healer of 
Iniquity. 

The Pathway of Suffering brings to us the healing 
of sins as well as the disclosing of them. Indeed, our 
sins have been revealed in order that we may escape 


THE PATHWAY OF SUFFERING 51 

from them by the use of the means and the remedy 
provided by God. The Pathway of Suffering shows 
that “with his stripes we are healed.” There is no 
short cut to the healing of sins. There is no road we 
may travel which permits us to avoid Christ, the suffer¬ 
ing, the crucified Christ. No influence of social posi¬ 
tion, no craft of commercial enterprise, no glitter of 
gold, no brilliancy of intellect, no implication of fratern- 
alism, no theory of social reform, no claim of ethical 
culture, no doctrine of human origin, none of these 
singly or combined can open for us the way out of sin 
into holiness and fellowship with God. There is but 
one way, Christ Jesus, and He, suffering and dying for 
sins. If we would travel with Christ the way into the 
Kingdom we must first travel with Him the Pathway 
of His Vicarious Suffering. 

Hear the Word of God: 

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man 
cometh unto the Father but by me.—John 14:6. 

God sent not his Son into the world to condemn 
the world; but that the world through him might 
be saved. He that believeth on him is not con¬ 
demned : but he that believeth not is condemned 
already, because he hath not believed in the name 
of the only begotten Son of God.—John 3:17, 18. 

Sacrifice and offering and burnt offering and 
offerings for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst 
pleasure therein. . . We are sanctified through 

the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for 
all. For by one offering he hath perfected for 
ever them that are sanctified.—Heb. 10:8, 10, 14. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS ORIGIN 


I John 1: 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we 
unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our 
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 

Our theme fellowship with God is, perhaps, 
the greatest among all the evidences of God’s 
graciousness toward sinners. Those are wonder¬ 
fully sweet words of Jesus, where He says: “God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life.” 1 Those are “Heavenly words, 
with comfort fraught,” where the Saviour says: “Come 
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest.” 2 But who can tell the supreme 
sweetness, the precious comfort, and the marvelous 
peace and power which come to us when there is ful¬ 
filled in our life those gracious words of the Master, 
“Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world.” 3 

Some of us have for years had fulfilled in 
our lives the words,—Our fellowship is with the 
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ; others among 
us have just begun to know what this fellowship means; 
and there are still others who have not yet come to the 
point where they can say: “My Lord and My God.” 4 
Yet it makes little difference to which of these classes 

1 John 3:16. 2 Matt. 11: 28. * Matt. 28: 20. 

4 John 20:28. 

52 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS ORIGIN 


53 


any one of us may belong, for we all need fellowship 
with God, and we need it more abundantly day by day. 
So I wish to invite your attention now to the general 
topic,—Fellowship with God,—and in particular to the 
origin of fellowship with God. 

When we wish to become acquainted with any per¬ 
son here on earth there are certain steps which must be 
taken if we want our acquaintance to be rightfully 
established and of such a character as will develop into 
a union of hearts in helpful fellowship. We must 
secure an introduction in an orderly and decent way. 

How can such an introduction be secured? In decent 
circles, among clean men and women, this introduction 
must be brought about by the mediation of some mutual 
friend. This friend makes us acquainted with the per¬ 
son we desire to meet by bringing us together either 
in person or by a letter of introduction. 

What is true in the confines of earthly society is also 
true in heavenly circles. If we wish to meet God, and 
have fellowship with Him, we must first be introduced 
to Him. Since God wishes to meet us, even as we do 
Him, He has provided the means, by which we can be 
brought to Him. There is a mutual Friend, Who 
stands ready to introduce us to God by letter and in 
person, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. “We have an 
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 6 
“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far 
oflP are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is 
our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken 
down the middle wall of partition between us.” 6 “‘He 
is able also to save them to the uttermost that come 
6 Eph. 2:13, 14. 


I John 2:1. 


54 


WRECKS REBUILT 


unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make inter¬ 
cession for them.” 7 

But in order to make use of these means we must 
believe that they can secure for us the object of our 
desires. If we have no confidence in the ability of the 
person suggested to introduce us to the one we have 
been trying to meet we will not go to the person recom¬ 
mended. The same is true in making use of the 
divinely established means of becoming acquainted with 
God. Unless we believe that Christ can help us to 
meet God the Father we will not ask His aid. 

Here, however, we are face to face with a condition 
that is peculiar to heavenly acquaintance. If one friend 
on earth cannot help us to meet the person we wish to 
know we can go to some other friend and seek his aid. 
This is not so when we seek to know God. Christ 
distinctly tells us “No man cometh unto the Father ex¬ 
cept by me.” 8 We cannot avoid the Christ way into 
the presence of God. Scripture distinctly warns us, 
“He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, 
but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief 
and a robber.” 9 Do you think it likely that He Who 
gave the command,—“Thou shalt not steal,” 10 or who 
in the Person of His Son describes heaven as the place 
“where no thief approacheth,” 11 or Who said through 
the Apostle Paul: “Know ye not that the unrighteous 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? .... Nor 
thieves . . . ,” 12 do you think He is likely to give 

you an open-armed reception if you try to break into 
His Presence in any other way than the way He 

7 Heb. 7:25. 8 John 14:6. 'John 10:1. 

10 Exod. 20:15. 11 Luke 12:33. “I Cor. 6:9, 10. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS ORIGIN 


55 


Himself has established, which is Jesus the Christ? 

Examine the lives of the Holy Men of God. What 
gave them the power to walk with Him ? What enabled 
them to have fellowship with Him? It was not wealth, 
for Saul of Tarsus had this; yet, God did not receive 
him into His fellowship until he had accepted the Lord 
Jesus Christ as his Master. It was not Saul’s position 
in society as a Roman citizen, it was not his wonderful 
mind trained at the feet of the greatest scholar of his 
day. It was the Christ, Who struck him blind on the 
road to Damascus, Who first led Saul into his place with 
God. It was not Matthew’s poverty that brought him 
into fellowship with God. It was his hearing and his 
obeying of Christ’s command,—“Follow me,” 13 —that 
led him to the open door of fellowship’s place. It was 
not the Disciples’ sufferings, or the persecutions they 
endured, that permitted them to see God, but it was 
their faith in Christ Jesus that called them from their 
earthly labors, made them fishers of men, and fellow- 
workers together with God. There is but “one medi¬ 
ator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 14 
Truly has Christ said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and 
the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” 15 

But what if we do have this willing faith? What 
if we do meet God by the Christ way? Will this alone 
constitute a fellowship with Him? Not at all. You 
and I have often been the means of bringing two per¬ 
sons together and yet there never grew up between them 
a true friendship. What was the trouble do you sup¬ 
pose? They would visit one another, they were cordial 
and polite when they met, but this was the extent of 

18 John 12:26. 14 1 Tim. 2:5. “John 14:6. 


56 


WRECKS REBUILT 


their acquaintance. It was merely on the surface. It 
did not strike deep down into their hearts. What could 
have been the matter that they were not better friends? 

There is a law in the physical world that is known as 
the law of sympathetic vibration. You and I have 
often seen this law in operation without perhaps being 
conscious of its existence. You have heard some one 
strike a note on some musical instrument and imme¬ 
diately some other object in the room would begin to 
tinkle. Why? because the second object was attuned 
to the first and the first to the second, there was an in¬ 
visible, but none-the-less real, bond of sympathy be¬ 
tween them. 

This same law operates in the spiritual world. Unless 
our hearts are attuned to the heart of God there can be 
no response when He strikes the chord of companion¬ 
ship, when He plays the sweet melody of heavenly fel¬ 
lowship. There was a man by tjie name of Enoch of 
whom it is written in sacred history, “And Enoch 
walked with God: and he was not.; for God took him.” 16 
He walked with God,—why? His name gives us a 
clew. Enoch means in the old Hebrew tongue “dedi¬ 
cated, or disciplined and well regulated.” Do you sup¬ 
pose for an instant that Enoch could have walked with 
God if he had been dedicated to a life of sin and shame, 
or if he had been disciplined, well regulated, that is, 
skilled in the things of hell? There was another man 
by the name of Noah, whose history is written in the 
same sacred Book, and of whom we read, “Noah walked 
with God.” 17 How did he come to possess this blessed 
and precious companionship with God after he came 

18 Gen. 5:24. 17 Gen. 6:9. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS ORIGIN 


57 


to know God? Because, as it is said of him, “Noah 
was a just man and perfect in his generations.” 18 There 
was another man of whom it is written, “And the Lord 
was with Jehoshaphat.” 19 Why, again? “Because he 
. . . . sought to the Lord, God . . . . , and 

walked in his commandments.” 20 

Listen to some of God’s own promises,—“Lord, who 
shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy 
holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh 
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.” 21 
“Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that 
they may dwell with me; he that walketh in a perfect 
way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall 
not dwell in my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarry 
in my sight.” 22 

Attuned to God through Christ Jesus. This is the 
secret of fellowship with the Father. The soul that 
would walk with God, must find his faith bringing forth 
its natural fruits. No man can say he believes in 
Christ, and therefore claim to know and to walk with 
God, unless he conscientiously tries by the help of the 
Spirit of God to walk uprightly, perfectly, justly, and 
purely before God. Without this realized in life no 
one can say he has fellowship with God. Without this 
you and I may call occasionally at His house and per¬ 
haps eat of His table. But this is as far as our acquaint¬ 
ance will go. God may tolerate such an acquaintance 
for a while with the hope that we will surrender to 
Him and become attuned to Him, but eventually He 
will surely reject and disown such fellowship. 

“Gen. 6:9. 19 II Chron. 17:3. 30 II Chron. 17:4. 

21 Ps. 101:6, 7 - 23 Matt. 25:34. 


58 


WRECKS REBUILT 


Since, then, this faith in Christ and this at-one-ment 
with God are so necessary to a fellowship with Him, 
the thought naturally arises,—How can I secure such a 
faith and such an at-one-ment? 

Faith and at-one-ment with God can never be secured 
by human power or human agency. We cannot by our 
own strength or power of will come to Jesus Christ, 
believe on Him, and receive the gift of fellowship with 
God. God alone must so touch our hearts that they may 
receive the power to turn to Him, to have an efficient 
faith in His Son. The origin of all faith and fellow¬ 
ship “is the free, good, gracious will of God ... it 
is solely God’s gift and boon.” In the Acts of the 
Apostles Paul and Barnabas relate how they came to 
the great Gentile world of sin and this is their testi¬ 
mony,—“They rehearsed all that God had done with 
them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the 
Gentiles.” 23 Paul tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit 
is . . . faith.” 24 Again he writes, “God is faith¬ 

ful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” 25 “The natural man re- 
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they 
are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, be¬ 
cause they are spiritually discerned.” 26 “Other foun¬ 
dation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus 
Christ.” 27 “What hast thou that thou didst not re¬ 
ceive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, 
as if thou hadst not received it?” 28 “No man can say 
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” 29 

33 Acts 14:27. 34 Gal. 5:22. 25 1 Cor. 1:9. 

*1 Cor. 2:14. aT I Cor. 3:11. 28 1 Cor. 4:7. 

29 1 Cor. 12:3. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS ORIGIN 


59 


God gives this faith and this fellowship through His 
Word of Scripture. The means by which God places 
faith in the heart and attunes the heart to Himself is 
the preaching of the Word. God says: “Faith cometh 
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” 30 In 
His last great prayer on earth Christ said: “I have 
given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and 
they have received them, and have known surely that 
I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou 
didst send me.” 31 And He also added: “Neither pray 
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe 
on me through their word.” 32 Peter also tells of those 
“who by him do believe in God,” 33 that they are “born 
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever 
. . . . And this is the word which by the gospel is 
preached unto you.” 34 

A few years ago a faithful servant of God lay on his 
death bed. For years he had preached God’s Word 
and worked God’s will until, like Moses, his face shone 
with the light of God’s presence, power, and peace. As 
he lay dying his people begged for a last message. And 
what a message it was! simple, true, eternal, like the 
spirit of the dying servant. “Keep close to the Word,” 
was his last message. “Keep close to the Word!” What 
Word? The incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, 
Who, “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he be¬ 
came poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” 35 
“Keep close to the Word!” What Word? The Word 
of the Spirit’s testimony, written in God’s Book, the 

*°Rom. 10:17. 31 John 17:8. “John 17:20. 

M I Pet. 1:21. 34 1 Pet. 1:23-25, passim. 38 II Cor. 8:9. 


60 


WRECKS REBUILT 


Bible. “Keep close to the Word” and you will walk 
in the presence of the living God, Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit, to Whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. 
Amen. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS NATURE 


I John 1 : 5 - 10 ; 2 : 9 - 16 . This then is the message which we 
have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and 
in him is no darkness at all. 

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in dark¬ 
ness, we lie, and do not the truth: 

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fel¬ 
lowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
cleanseth us from all sin. 

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
truth is not in us. 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his 
word is not in us. 

He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in 
darkness even until now. 

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is 
none occasion of stumbling in him. 

But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in 
darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that dark¬ 
ness hath blinded his eyes. 

I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven 
you for his name’s sake. 

I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is 
from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye 
have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, 
because ye have known the Father. 

I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him 
that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, 
because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and 
ye have overcome the wicked one. 

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. 
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust 
of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of 
the world. 

In the preceding discourse we studied together the root 
of fellowship with God. As we studied that topic we found 

61 


62 


WRECKS REBUILT 


that faith is the golden key which unlocks the gates of 
heaven and admits us to fellowship with God. We saw, 
first of all, that we must have faith in Christ’s willing¬ 
ness and ability to bring us to God; secondly, that this 
saving faith must become a living reality in our daily 
life, a power helping us to live the God-life so essential 
to true fellowship with Him; thirdly, we found this 
saving and living faith is the free gift of God, Who 
loves us and gave His Son for us; and lastly we learned 
that only as we keep close to the Word, the incarnate 
Word, Jesus Christ, and the Word of the Spirit’s testi¬ 
mony preserved for us in the Bible, can we enter into 
the holy place of God’s fellowship. 

We are now going to look at the nature of this fellow¬ 
ship with God. And for our text we have chosen I John 
i: 5-10, and 2:9-16. 

We notice again the first great and fundamental truth 
of our spiritual life,—the ever-present power of sin and 
its conquest by God’s love. Friendship with God is not 
natural with us. By nature we are the enemies of God 
because we are the children of wrath through our sin¬ 
ful condition. “If we say that we have no sin, we de¬ 
ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” “If we 
say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and 
his word is not in us.” “If we confess our sins, he 
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness.” “The blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 

What do these words of Scripture mean? Just this, 
before sin came into the world through the disobedi¬ 
ence of Adam, there was a full fellowship with God. 
Then man walked hand in hand with God. Then man 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS NATURE 


63 


conversed freely every day with his Creator. In those 
happy days of man’s innocence there was no barrier of 
sin between him and his Maker, there was no interrup¬ 
tion in the free and full fellowship with God the Father. 

As soon as Adam disobeyed God and ate of the fruit 
of the forbidden tree then this precious fellowship with 
God was broken. “And they heard the voice of the 
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: 
and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the pres¬ 
ence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 
And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto 
him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice 
in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; 
and I hid myself .... Therefore the Lord God 
. . . . drove out the man; and he placed at the east 

of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword 
which turned every way to keep the way of the tree 
of life.” 1 

Adam and Eve, the first children of God, because of 
sin, must hide themselves from Him. From this mo¬ 
ment on their fellowship with God, and through them 
our fellowship as well, was destroyed. The fellowship 
of love is now to be transformed into the fellowship of 
law and flight from the face of God. Henceforth men 
were to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord 
God. 

But God in His great love for the fallen did not take 
from them every vestige of hope and consolation. God 
gave to Adam and Eve, before He drove them out of 
Eden, the promise of a road that should one day lead 
them and their children back again into the garden of 

1 Gen. 3 : 8-24, passim. 


64 


WRECKS REBUILT 


fellowship. The seed of the woman should one day 
triumph over the serpent, crushing its head, the seat of 
its power and poison. Of this seed John tells us in 
these words,—“The blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
cleanseth us from all sin.” 

And this is the first thing we note about fellowship 
with God,—it is a fellowship of cleansing. As soon as 
you come into the presence of God you enter the place 
which is most holy, and like Moses of old, you must 
put off the shoes of your earthly life, for the ground on 
which you stand is holy. The moment you come into the 
banquet chamber of God’s house, you are met at the 
door by God’s Servant, Who gives you the garment of 
righteousness to cover the dust and dirt of your sinful 
journey. To every soul which comes by the Christ way 
into the presence of God, is given to know the same 
experience as Joshua had. “And he showed me Joshua 
the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, 
and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And 
the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O 
Satan; .... is not this a brand plucked out of 
the burning? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy gar¬ 
ments, and stood before the angel. And he answered 
and spake unto those that stood before him saying, 
Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto 
him he said, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from 
thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. 
And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. 
So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him 
with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.” 2 

. In the second place, fellowship with God is marked 

a Zech. 3:1-5- 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS NATURE 


65 


by light. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at 
all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and 
walk in darkness, we lie, and do not speak the truth; 
but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we 
have fellowship one with another.” 

Here are contrasted two opposing elements, light and 
darkness. One is typical of walking with God, the 
other of walking with the devil. When we walk with 
God, we walk in the light of God, for “God is light, 
and in him is no darkness at all.” If we have fellow¬ 
ship with Him we share this light. 

Just consider for a moment what it means to have 
light. The light of day, as it shines down upon us, 
guides us in the course of our daily life. It helps us 
to walk in such a way that we may avoid danger and 
escape harm. The light of God’s fellowship is also a 
daily guide. His light brightens the path of our 
spiritual way and we are enabled to avoid the dangers 
hell places in our way and helped to escape the harm 
Satan would bring upon us. Moreover, by this light of 
God, we can always keep God in sight, for as His light 
shines down God is constantly revealing Himself to us 
and we do not drift apart in the darkness of the world 
of sin about us. 

Again light is a signal of warning. Light tells us of 
the presence of danger. All along our sea-coasts are 
hundreds of light-ships, light-houses, beacons, etc. These 
are the means the sailor has of discovering the presence 
of danger, of detecting the nearness of hidden rocks, of 
treacherous shoals, of tricky channels. As these lights 
show the pilot where the danger is he is able to steer 
away from it and thus a shipwreck is avoided. 


66 


WRECKS REBUILT 


So with the light of God. It warns us of the dangers 
of sin and helps us to steer clear of the death hidden in 
these dangers. 

Moreover, light is absolutely necessary for a perfect 
and vigorous life. Some of you have perhaps been 
raised on farms or in country districts from which, in 
spite of the advice of your loving parents and against 
their earnest wishes, you have drifted into the city and 
its sin. You can remember how Mother would take 
those geranium plants, hang them up in the cellar for 
the winter, and then in the Spring bring them out for 
replanting. Do you see the plant after its winter in the 
dark cellar? It is not very pretty to look at; it does 
not look as if one bit of life remained in it. What 
brought the once beautiful, green, fragrant plant to this 
dried-out, lifeless condition? Just one thing,—lack of 
light. So it is in the life history of every soul. As 
long as it keeps in the light of God’s fellowship it stays 
green, fresh, and sweet, fit for the Master’s heavenly 
garden. But the minute the soul is taken away from 
God’s light and placed in the darkness of hell’s cellar 
of sin and evil it begins to loose its sweetness, its fresh¬ 
ness, and its life fragrance. But what a change in that 
plant as soon as Mother placed it in that little pot of 
sand or light soil, right there in the window where the 
sun streamed in on it day after day! Soon the dried, 
stiff stalks begin to soften and fill out until every wrinkle 
and dead spot have disappeared. Then a little leaf 
bursts out here and another there, and then it is ready 
for outdoor planting and its new summer of beauty, 
sweetness, and fragrance. What brought about this 
marvelous change? The light of God’s heavens. So it 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS NATURE 67 


is again with your soul when it has lost its beauty, its 
freshness, and its fragrance through the darkness of 
sin. When your soul comes again into the light of 
God’s fellowship, even though it be as empty of life 
as a desert, God’s light of love, mercy, and grace can 
make that dead, dry, ugly soul “blossom as the rose. 
It shall blossom abundantly.” 3 

Again fellowship with God is marked by a spirit of 
unworldliness. In I John 2:15, 16 we read,—“Love 
not the world neither the things that are in the world. 
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not 
in him. For all that is in the world, ... is not of 
the Father, but is of the world.” The world and God 
are always in a state of conflict and opposition because 
of the evil nature of the world. The world is the place 
of “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and 
the pride of life.” Lust and pride, twin spawn of 
Satan’s breeding, cradled in hell, and fed with iniquity, 
cannot endure the presence of God. How then, if you 
walk in their company, can you have God’s fellowship? 
Christ, Himself, calls the devil “the prince of this 
world.” 4 If you are of the world, you are the devil’s 
subject, he is your ruler. And if you are his subject 
and he your ruler, how then can you belong to God at 
the same time? Paul, speaking by the inspiration of 
the Spirit of God, writes to the Corinthians,—“If our 
gospel is veiled it is veiled to them that are lost; in 
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of 
the unbelieving, lest the light of the glorious gospel of 
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine forth.” 5 
There it is, the old combination,—“the god of this 

8 Isa. 35:1. 4 John 12:31. 8 II Cor. 4:3, 4 - 


68 


WRECKS REBUILT 


world,” no light, spiritual blindness. And if you har¬ 
bor in your soul this trinity of evil, how can the Triune 
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit make you His temple 
and come to dwell and fellowship with you? 

If there is to be any fellowship with God, everything 
that partakes of the world must be driven out of the 
soul. All lusts, evil desires, everything and anything 
that binds the soul to the world must be broken and 
cast away. Every weed of worldliness must be torn 
out by the roots. No mere hoeing off of their tops will 
be sufficient, for these lusts are of Satan’s planting, and 
like all weeds, their roots only spread farther and 
farther the more you cut off the tops. Then, when they 
do break through the surface again, what a crop there 
is! Root them out; tear them out; this alone is the 
safe way. 

But this you can and will never do alone. Satan’s 
weeds are too well rooted for feeble, human power to 
pull out of the hard soil of death. There must be a 
looking to “the Lamb of God, who taketh away the 
sin of the world.” 6 You and I must come to the point 
where we make the good confession of the Samaritans, 
—“We believe, . . . and know that this is indeed 

the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” 7 Everyone must 
pin his soul’s future to Him, Who “is the propitiation 
for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the 
sins of the whole world.” 8 And then, as the sinner is 
led into the fellowship with the Father, he will be able 
to say: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the 
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the 
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” 9 

"John 1:29. 7 John 4:42. 8 1 John 2:2. * Gal. 6:14. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS NATURE 


69 


And finally, fellowship with God is characterized by 
love. “He that saith he is in the light and hateth his 
brother, is in the darkness even until now. He that 
loveth his brother abideth in the light. . . .” 

We have already learned that to be in the light is 
to walk with God. We are told now that he who loves 
is in the light and therefore walks with God. 

The importance which God attaches to the existence 
of love in the heart is shown by the frequent repetition 
of the word love in the Bible. Some four hundred 
times do God’s servants tell us about love; some four 
hundred times does the call to a life of love sound in 
the spirit when God’s holy men speak to us in the Bible. 
Love is the greatest thing in the world because it is the 
greatest thing in God. “God so loved,” these words 
strike the key-note of the entire revelation of God. The 
counter proposition to this key-note of Scripture is no 
less centered around love, for as Paul says: “If any 
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anath¬ 
ema.” 10 The entire will of God revolves about love. 
“But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put 
the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a 
question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is 
the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto 
him. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This 
is the first and great commandment. And the second 
is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
On these two commandments hang all the law 
and the prophets.” 11 “All they that hate me love 

10 1 Cor. 16:22, 11 Matt. 22:34-40. 


70 


WRECKS REBUILT 


death,” 12 says Christ, the Wisdom of God. “Follow 
after . . . love . . . ,” 13 is Paul’s advice to the 
young Timothy as a “man of God.” “Jude, the servant 
of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James,” 14 writing 
“to them that are called, beloved in God the Father, 
and kept for Jesus Christ,” 15 says: “Keep yourselves in 
the love of God.” 16 Says John: “God is love; and he 
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 
God “chose us in him before the foundation of the 
world, that we should be holy and without blame before 
him; having in love predestinated us for adoption.” 17 It 
is the great prayer of Paul “that ye, being rooted and 
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all 
the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, 
and height; and to know the love of Christ, which 
passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled, even to all 
the fullness of God.” 18 

“And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but 
the greatest of these is love.” 19 

“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when 
he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be 
ashamed before him at his coming.” 20 “God is love; 
and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God 
in him.” 21 

12 Prov. 8:36. 13 1 Tim. 6:ttu. 14 Jude 1. 

16 Jude 1. 16 Jude 21. 17 Eph. 1:4, 5. 

M Eph. 3:17-19. ” I Cor. 13113. 20 1 John 3: 28. 

21 1 John 4:16. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS PROOFS 


I John 3 : 10-24. In this the children of God are manifest, and 
the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is 
not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that 
we should love one another. 

Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. 
And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, 
and his brother’s righteous. 

Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because 
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in 
death. 

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that 
no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his 
life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have 
need, and shuttetjh up his bowels of compassion from him, how 
dwelleth the love of God in him? 

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; 
but in deed and in truth. 

And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure 
our hearts before him. 

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, 
and knoweth all things. 

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence 
toward God. 

And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his 
commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the 
name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave 
us commandment. 

And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and 
he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the 
Spirit which he hath given us. 

We now come to the third part of our study of 
fellowship with God. For a little while let us try 

71 


72 


WRECKS REBUILT 


to study God’s precious Word, which is able to make 
us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
Jesus; that Word, of which the blessed Saviour said: 
“If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples 
indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
make you free ;” 1 that Word, of which the Holy Spirit, 
speaking through the Apostle, said: “All scripture is 
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doc¬ 
trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness; that the man of God may be ready, thor¬ 
oughly equipped for every good work .” 2 

What does our portion of this wonderful Word here 
tell us? It brings to us the four great proofs of 
a life that is hid in Christ Jesus. These proofs we find 
to be (i) the proof of the world; ( 2 ) the proof of the 
heart; ( 3 ) the proof of brotherly love; ( 4 ) the abid¬ 
ing proof of a pure heart. 

The proof of the world. At first glance it may seem 
a contradiction of all revealed truth for any one to look 
for a proof of fellowship with God in the testimony of 
the world. But this very contradiction is the proof we 
are seeking. Christ tells us that the world has nothing 
in common with the believer. He who walks with God 
can never have any communion with the world. And 
just here lies the secret of the world’s testimony in favor 
of the believer. Were the world living in harmony with 
the Christian, were there no enmity to be found between 
the world and the follower of God, there could be no 
testimony on the part of the world as to how near we 
are to God. From the reality of the enmity which 
exists between the world and Christ springs the 

1 John 8:32, 33. 2 II Tim. 3:16. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS PROOF 73 

surety of the world’s testimony for you and me. 

The world hated Christ with a bitter hatred. In the 
Gospels are recorded time and again many instances of 
this hatred of the world for the Son of God. The world 
hated Christ because He convicted it of sin; the world 
hated Him because He showed it the eternal destruction 
that awaits all sinning against the holy will of the 
Father; the world hated the Saviour because He called 
it to forsake evil and to follow after righteousness, with¬ 
out which no one can please God. Purity, revealing the 
awfulness of impurity, always calls forth the hatred of 
impurity. 

And because the world hated Christ it plotted with 
the devil to put Christ out of the way. For three long 
years the conflict went on, as He Himself hints in the 
parable of the unfruitful fig tree,—“A certain man had 
a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and 
sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he 
unto the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three 
years I come seeking fruit on the fig tree, and find none; 
cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” 3 Their 
plotting finally bore fruit, and Christ was betrayed into 
the hands of sinners to be murdered by sin, yet for sin, 
on the Cross. 

The world hated Christ. The world still hates Christ 
because He was not and is not of the world. They 
are, indeed, extraordinary parents who hate and perse¬ 
cute their own offspring. It is unnatural for a father 
or a mother to hate one of their children. But Christ 
is not the child of the devil and his wife, the world; He 
is “the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 

•Luke 13:6, 7 - 


74 


WRECKS REBUILT 


truth.” 4 Hence the world bears for Him an implac¬ 
able, an unending, an undying hatred. 

As the world hates Christ, so it hates everyone who 
loves Him and accepts Him as Redeemer and King, as 
the only Mediator between God, the Father, and man. 
Matthew has preserved these words of Christ for us, 
“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” 5 
John records for us that the Master once said: “If the 
world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it 
hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would 
love his own; but ye are not of the world, but I have 
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth 
you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The 
servant is not greater than his lord. If they have per¬ 
secuted me, they will also persecute you.” 6 Indeed, the 
servant is not above his Master, Jesus the Christ. As 
the world hates Him, so it hates everyone who believes 
in Him and would be led by Him to the Father, to His 
Father and our Father, who is in heaven. 

This, then, is the glorious contradiction from which 
also comes our assurance of fellowship with God. 
Though we are in the world, we are not of the world, 
even as Christ is not of the world. As we are separated 
from the world, so we are separated from the things of 
the world of which Paul tells us in his letter to the 
Galatian Christians,—“Now the works of the flesh are 
manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, un¬ 
cleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such 
like; of which I tell you beforehand, as I have told you 

4 John 1:14. 'Matt. 10:22. 'John 15:18-20. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS PROOF 


75 


in time past, that they that do such things shall not in¬ 
herit the kingdom of God.” 7 A pretty list, indeed. One 
that brings joy and peace, satisfaction and safety to the 
soul. What? You say, “No.” Then you admit that 
you can not walk with God and the World at the same 
time. No, you cannot, for you cannot be the followers 
of love and of hatred at the same time. So I ask you 

now: “How is the world treating you? Are you a hale 

fellow, well met, welcomed as a boon companion?” 
Then I say: “You are far from fellowship with God, 
for your present companions are spawn of hell’s mak¬ 
ing.” “How is the world treating you? Like it treated 
Christ?” Then I say: “Good. It is well with your 
soul. You have come at last to walk with God. Go in 
peace.” 

Again we may know that we are walking with God 
from the condition of our hearts. “And hereby we 
know that we are of the truth, . . . For if our 

heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and 

knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us 
not, then have we confidence toward God.” 

In the heart of every true, sincere follower of Christ, 
the Holy Spirit dwells and teaches the difference be¬ 
tween right and wrong. To do this He takes the Law 
and constantly brings us face to face with its demands. 
Then, when we begin to see how far we fall short of 
keeping this Law, the Spirit awakens a great desire in 
us to measure up to God’s standard. When we feel 
no such desire to live the God life, there is no answering 
peace, only an evergrowing sense of helplessness and 
hopelessness, which, with the passing of days and years 

7 Gal. 5 :19-21. 


76 


WRECKS REBUILT 


spent in sin, finally crushes the heart and blots out for¬ 
ever the sinner’s name from the Book of Life. 

As the heart responds to the teaching and leading of 
the Holy Spirit, a still, small voice begins to say: 
“Peace, be still.” This is the voice of the divinely puri¬ 
fied and enlightened conscience. When the conscience 
speaks of peace and goodwill the believer can lay his head 
down in safety each night and say: “Dear Lord, it has 
been all right with us today. Praise be to Thy holy 
Name.” We know then that we have been with God. The 
voice of conscience has not condemned but adsolved us. 

But, when the heart condemns, when it tells us we are 
not living as God would have us live, then it is time to 
begin a very earnest, prayerful self-examination, with 
the Word of God as the standard by which to judge 
our condition, as the mirror in which to see ourselves 
as we are, for if our heart condemn us it is certain we 
are not walking with God. 

Moreover, if the heart, with all its sin, weakness, and 
ignorance of unrighteousness, still has the power to 
condemn us, what must be the attitude of God, Who 
is so infinitely greater than any human heart? If the 
conscience, hemmed in by sin as it is, deprived by the 
power of sin of an ability to make a complete, correct, 
and sincere self-examination can yet see that we are not 
at one with the Father, then truly God’s knowledge of 
our life must be something awful. How clearly must 
He see the sinfulness of our life. How every evil 
thought, every wicked deed, every foul word must 
strike Him, wound Him, pain His loving heart, pierce 
His very righteousness with the sharp pain born of re¬ 
bellion against His sacred Person and His holy will. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS PROOF 


77 


But, though God is greater than the heart, His great¬ 
ness is no reason for the sinner to give up the fight and 
to flee in despair of His mercy. When the Holy Spirit 
accuses any one it is not simply to strike the heart with 
terror and to fill the soul with fear. These feelings do 
come and they do plague the soul, but they come to 
warn, to turn the sinning soul away from the death to 
the good way of life. The Spirit rebukes, strikes the 
heart with terror, fills the soul with a great unrest, and 
all for one great, good, and glorious purpose,—to recall 
us from the way of sin, judgment, wrath, and eternal 
misery, and to make us look to Him Who died for the 
sins of the world, that He might be not only “the Prince 
of life/’ 8 “the Author of eternal salvation unto all them 
that obey him;” 9 but also the “finisher of faith.” 10 

But stop! A word of warning from God. There is 
such a thing as a spurious conscience, a conscience which 
is only an imitation and therefore a deceiver. Satan 
may have such control over a soul that that heart can 
no longer know when it sins against God. Time and 
again some one has told me that there is no such thing 
as sin; that God is such a good, kind, loving God you 
could not be condemned to eternal misery in hell; that 
no matter what is done in this world there is always a 
chance to make good in some higher existence in the 
world to come; and other such tommy rot, finding no 
leg to stand on in the Scriptures, no substantiating evi¬ 
dence from history, no ground in any sane personal 
experience. The soul, which trafficks with the devil 
with such excuses to cover his sin, is playing with hell 
fire; he is hugging to his breast the coals of wrath and 

8 Acts 3:15. 9 Heb. 6:19. 10 Heb. 12: 12. 


78 


WRECKS REBUILT 


just judgment against sin and every form of unright¬ 
eousness. And I ask you: “Can a man take fire in his 
bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon 
hot coals, and his feet not be burned?” 11 

There is an economy in the craft of the devil. He 
does not waste time tempting the soul that is already 
in his power. When, therefore, the voice of conscience 
never condemns but always absolves, it is certain that 
there is no fellowship with God in that life, no place 
for the Master in that heart, no power of the Holy 
Spirit in that soul. Beware of the conscience which 
always pats you on the back, always tells you how good 
you are, and never says: “Ye shall be holy: for I the 
Lord your God am holy.” 12 Watch, yes, but “Watch 
and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” 13 And 
above all “stand fast in the faith.” 14 

Still a third proof of fellowship with God is a spirit 
of love. “And this is his commandment, That we should 
believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love 
one another, as he gave us commandment. And he 
that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and 
he in him.” 

If we have fellowship with God we have become 
eccentric, that is, “departing from the centre,” as the 
dictionary explains this word. What is the great centre 
of every sinful life? The same centre that sin has, 
namely, “I.” The soul that is self-centered may know 
at once it is not in accord with its Creator. We must 
“revolve round others who have been to us as yet un¬ 
thought of, or thought of as helps or hindrances to us.” 


11 Prov. 6: 27, 28. 12 Lev. 19:2. 


13 Matt. 26:41. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS PROOF 


79 


We must “revolve around others in loving-kindness and 
faith,” instead of making others and our “dealings with 
them revolve round us.” 

There are souls this moment, souls that were one 
time your companions in sin. What are you doing to 
bring them to Christ that they may be your “bread- 
fellows” in salvation? There are souls this moment, 
souls that were your companions in the misery of sin. 
What are you doing to bring them away from their 
misery that they may no longer feed on ashes, but feast 
on “the true bread from heaven,” 15 even “he who cometh 
down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world?” 16 
To these you must now turn to comfort them in sick¬ 
ness, encourage them in distress, fill them with hope in 
the hour of despair, to share with them what you have 
when they are in want, and to guide them to the 
Saviour that they may “look on him whom they 
pierced” 17 with their sins, and looking, live. 

If we so love that we joyfully do these things, then 
we are walking with God. 

And finally there is the fourth great proof of fellow¬ 
ship with God. We have seen the proof of the world, 
the proof of the heart, the proof of love. Now let us 
examine the proof of a pure life. 

In a way the proof of a pure life includes all the 
proofs we have so far considered. No life is a pure 
life in God's sight unless it fulfills the requirements 
which have been the subject of our study so far. Yet 
the proof of a pure life is different from the proofs 
mentioned already. It differs in this,—it involves prim¬ 
arily the believer’s relation to himself. 

15 John 6:32. 16 John 6:33. 17 John 19: 37 * 


80 


WRECKS REBUILT 


The believer’s service to himself. What is meant by 
this? Simply this. A pure life is one which demands 
a perfect and intelligent use of the gifts God has given 
us. The first of these gifts is the body. God has given, 
yes, really loaned us our bodies to use for Him and His 
service. Therefore we dare not use up the strength 
of the body in any habit or indulgence that has a tend¬ 
ency to or actually does harm the body. The believer 
dare not waste his physical strength in self-indulgence, 
in the secret practice of any form of self-gratification. 

The ancient heathen, who knew nothing about Jesus 
Christ nor the wonderfully beautiful love of God in 
Christ, had enough appreciation of God’s will to see 
that He could associate with them only on the ground 
of purity. These people built marvelous temples of the 
purest marble and the most precious jewels, and the 
costliest of painting and sculpture were added to adorn 
the structure and make it the very symbol of all that 
is beautiful and noble. Now, when these heathen had 
finished their beautiful costly temples, what was the 
next step? Did they say: “Well, let’s go into the city 
and find how much mud and dirt and ashes and garbage 
we can find, and then let’s dump it in the temple.” If 
any one had tried even to suggest such a thing he would 
have been torn to bits. 

Yet, how many there are, even among the professed 
followers of Christ, who are ready to defile God’s 
temple, defile it, mar its purity and beauty, with the 
mud and the dirt, the ashes and garbage of secret self- 
indulgence. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of 
God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If 
any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God de- 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS PROOF 


81 


stroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye,” 18 
for you have been purified by the blood of God. So 
the Spirit warns us and tells us that if we defile the 
temple of God we have no fellowship with Him. “Touch 
not the unclean thing,” God warns, and then He adds, 
“I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and 
ye shall be my sons and daughters.” 19 I do not know 
what secret habits you may have, and I do not want to 
know; but this one thing I do want you to know that 
you cannot sin against the body, undermine its strength, 
and expect God to walk with you and overlook this sin. 
“Ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your 
sin will find you out.” 20 

In addition to an intelligent and right use of the body, 
there must also be a right use of the mind. When God 
wants to know how a soul is really living He looks at 
a man’s thoughts. As the condition of a man’s mind, 
so is the condition of his life. If we have a mind, im¬ 
pure, not free from evil and sinful thoughts, if the 
mind is always leaning toward the things that reflect 
the low, the mean, the smutty things of life, then in¬ 
deed, it is very doubtful whether there is any fellow¬ 
ship with God. “The thought of foolishness is sin,” 21 
says the Book. As the sinner “thinketh in his heart, 
so is he.” 22 Therefore, Jesus, Who knows your every 
thought, says to you: “Wherefore think ye evil in your 
hearts?” 23 And through His servant, Christ calls the 
evil-minded to repentance, saying: “Repent therefore 
of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps 
the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee. For I 

18 1 Cor. 3:16, 17. 19 II Cor. 6:17, 18. 20 Num. 32:23. 

21 Prov. 24: 9. 22 Prov. 23: 7. 28 Matt. 9: 4. 


82 


WRECKS REBUILT 


perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in 
the bond of iniquity.” 24 “Think soberly” 25 is the 
divine command, the advice of love. “Finally, breth¬ 
ren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are 
honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things 
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if 
there be any praise, think on these things . . . and 

the God of peace shall be with you.” 26 

There is still one more thing in the intelligent, godly 
service we would render. This involves the soul. A 
pure life, a right use of body and mind, all these are 
dependent upon the condition of the soul. By nature 
we are sinful and unclean. By nature our souls are so 
far from God that they cannot do the things of God. 
Since the natural condition of the soul is one far from 
God it must be in a corrupt condition, one filled with sin 
and suffering the consequences of sin. “The natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for 
they are foolishness to him; neither indeed can he know 
them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 27 Where¬ 
fore, because we are so bound by the power of sin that 
we cannot be aware of God’s things in life, we are “by 
nature children of wrath.” 28 

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love 
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in 
sins, hath given us life together with Christ Jesus.” 29 
That is, God sent His only begotten Son into the world 
to seek and to save the souls of sinners. Through the 
death of Christ, through His perfect fulfillment of the 

* Acts 8: 22, 23. 25 Rom. 12: 3. 28 Phil. 4: 8, 9. 

37 1 Cor. 2: 14. 28 Eph. 2:3. 29 Eph. 2:4, 5. 


FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD: ITS PROOF 


83 


will of God, our souls may come to a state of purity in 
spite of their naturally depraved condition. The right¬ 
eousness of Christ is made to cover the sinning soul, 
when that soul accepts Him in faith and repentance. 
Whoever is baptized in the Name of the one and triune 
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to that person is 
given the purity of Christ’s own soul. “Christ also 
loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might 
sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of water by 
the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious 
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; 
but that it should be holy and without blemish.” 30 Yes, 
“As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have 
put on Christ.” 31 And he who has put on Christ is a 
member of Christ’s Church and so has all the charac¬ 
teristics of Christ’s Church. If we have completely 
surrendered to Christ, and have cast ourselves on the 
mercy and grace of God, then we have a pure and godly 
life, for we have a soul which is hid in Christ Jesus. 

These then are the great proofs of a life that walks 
with God: (i) the hatred of the world toward us be¬ 
cause we are not of the world but of Christ; (2) the 
voice of the Holy Spirit, speaking to the believer 
through the enlightened, purified conscience; (3) the 
love of Christ going out through us as we try to bring 
others to a knowledge of the Saviour; (4) the soul, 
hid in Christ, living, speaking, thinking only the things 
of Christ. Let each of us earnestly pray the Father 
that He will give us these proofs in ever-increasing 
clearness and strength in our lives day by day. 


*° Eph. 5:25, 26. 


81 Gal. 3:27. 


THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST. 


Mark 8 : 1-9. In those days the multitude being very great, and 
having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and 
saith unto them. 

I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now 
been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: 

And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will 
faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. 

And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy 
these men with bread here in the wilderness! 

And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, 
Seven. 

And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground : and 
he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave 
to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before 
the people. 

And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and com¬ 
manded to set them also before them. 

So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken 
meat that was left seven baskets. 

And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent 
them away. 

In the course of the story of Christ’s life, as recorded 
in the Gospels, there are four distinct occasions on 
which it is said of Him that He had compassion on 
the multitudes which crowded about Him to hear His 
wonderful words and to see His marvelous miracles. 
The first of these is when Christ had compassion on 
the multitudes because they were like sheep without a 
shepherd to guide them to pasture and protect them 
from danger. The second account is connected with the 
miracle of healing, for, when Christ saw the multitude, 
He “was moved with compassion toward them, and 

84 


THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST 


85 


healed their sick.” 1 Then the sacred historians record 
two more instances where Christ had compassion on 
the multitudes. Both of these are connected with great 
miracles by which Jesus fed vast companies of people, 
first 5,000 men, besides women and children, and then 
4,000 men in addition to the women and children. 

In each of these four instances there are two words 
which stand out above all others ,—Compassion and 
Multitude. These two words are inseparably linked 
together and give us a wonderfully beautiful picture of 
the Master among sinners. 

The compassion of Jesus. What great thoughts these 
words ought to awaken in the heart of every sinner who 
feels the sting of his rebellion against his God and longs 
for some sign of the mercy from the just King of 
heaven and earth. 

The prodigal son, having spent “his substance with 
riotous living. . . . began to be in want.” 2 What 

was the nature of his want? food? clothing? shelter? 
Yes, all of these, for “there arose a mighty famine in 
that land.” 3 But the greatest want was in his own 
heart. He was suffering the famine created by the 
great want of love, of sympathy, of compassion. He 
longed to hear again the sweet songs of his childhood. 
He yearned to have about him, if only for a moment, 
the arms of his father, who loved him and even now 
was praying for that wandering boy. His was not the 
famine of the flesh, his was the famine of the heart 
and the spirit. 

One day “he came to himself,” and “he said, . . . 

I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, 

1 Matt. 14:14. 3 Luke 15:14. 3 Luke 15:14. 


86 


WRECKS REBUILT 


Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 
and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me 
as one of thy hired servants.” 4 “I have sinned.” Here is 
the hidden secret of his want, here is the one cause of 
the famine of his heart and the hidden hunger of his 
^struggling soul. Sin, sin, sin; gnawing, feeding itself 
on his vitals, until “he would fain have filled his belly 
with the husks that the swine did eat.” 5 Snatching at 
this straw of hope, grasping in despair at any chance 
to escape the powers of hell, veritably feeding his heart 
and his soul on the swine food prepared in Satan’s 
kitchen. A heart and a soul crying out unknowingly 
to the living God for His infinite compassion. 

The compassion of Christ. What reason can the 
sinning soul find to call for a share in Christ’s compas¬ 
sion? Why, the very word itself gives the greatest 
reason. Compassion: fellow-feeling, a suffering, not 
only for, but especially with the suffering one. Christ, 
suffering with the sinner. Yes, this is the great truth 
of God’s Word. Listen to what God has to say on this 
point. “Though he [that is, Christ] were a Son, yet 
learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” 6 
“Seeing then that ... we have not a high priest 
who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmi¬ 
ties; but was in all points tested like as we are, . . . 

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, 
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace for help in 
time of need.” 7 

“The things which he suffered.” Glorious truth of 
God’s revealing. Christ suffered “our infirmities.” 

4 Luke is: 17-19. 6 Luke 15:16. 8 Heb. 5:8. 

7 Heb. 4: 14-16. 


THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST 


87 


“Did He?” you say. Listen again to God’s own record 
of what His Son, Jesus Christ suffered with you. 

Have you been hungry? So has Christ. “When he 
fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an 
hungered.” 8 So writes the Spirit of God. Have you felt 
the torture of thirst? So has Christ. “After this, 
Jesus . . . saith, I thirst.” 9 Have you been 

weary? So has Christ. Says God’s Spirit again 
“Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat 
thus on the well.” 10 Has your heart felt the sting of 
sorrow? So has the heart of Christ. “Then cometh 
Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and 
saith unto his disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray 
yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons 
of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. 
Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrow¬ 
ful, even unto death.” 11 Have you been homeless? 
Christ Himself said: “The foxes have holes, and the 
birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath 
not where to lay his head.” 12 Have you been deserted, 
or still worse, betrayed by those you thought your 
truest friends? Christ, too, was deserted and betrayed 
by those He trusted. “In that same hour said Jesus to 
the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a robber 
with swords and staves for to take me? . . Then 

all the disciples forsook him, and fled.” 13 “Judas, one 
of the twelve, .... drew near unto Jesus to kiss 
him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou 
the Son of man with a kiss?” 14 Have you been tempted, 
not once, but many times to do some great sin against 

8 Matt. 4:2. 9 John 19:28. 10 John 4:6. "Matt. 26:36-38. 

12 Matt. 8:20. 18 Matt. 26: 56. 14 Luke 22: 47, 48. 


88 


WRECKS REBUILT 


your God? Jesus, too, knew what it means to fight a 
mighty battle with a mighty foe. Go home and read 
that mighty story of Christ’s temptation and His mighty 
victory as it is written in the fourth chapter of Mat¬ 
thew’s life of the Master of men. “Jesus . . . . 

tempted of the devil.” 15 These are the opening words 
of this account. “Tempted of the devil,” not once, or 
twice, but again and again. Have you sometimes felt 
that God Himself has utterly forsaken you and left you 
to perish, a victim of those forces, circumstances, and 
devilish persons which have haunted you and given 
your poor heart and your anguished soul no rest day 
or night? Then know that Christ felt even this most 
terrible and terrifying of all trials. Jesus is hanging 
on the cross. He is suffering the torments of hell in 
body and soul. His very being is racked with the tor¬ 
ments of the greatest agony of His life. There is a 
great “darkness over all the land.” 16 It is black with 
death within and without. Suddenly a piercing shriek 
cuts the darkness like a flash of lightning. It is the 
voice of the suffering, tortured, dying soul of Christ. 
Hear it. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me?” 17 

Enough. Let us not rush in where angels fear to 
tread. We have seen enough to know that Christ has 
indeed suffered, suffered “our infirmities” and His lov¬ 
ing heart now bids all to come to Him, with every want, 
suffering, and sin. He invites you now to come and to 
have part in His grace; invites, because He knows from 
actual experience just what is wrong and what is 
needed to right the wrong. 

15 Matt. 4:1. “Matt. 27:45. 


17 Matt. 27: 46. 


THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST 


89 


You do not have to eat the husks, fit only for swine, 
because they have been made by the master of swine. 
You can have a heavenly feast for that heavy heart. 
Jesus says: “I have compassion on the multitude, be¬ 
cause they . . . have had nothing to eat: and if I 

send them away fasting . . . they will faint by the 

way; for divers of them have come from far . . . 

And he commanded the people to sit down on the 
ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, 
and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; 
and they did set them before the people. And they had 
a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to 
set them also before them. So they did eat . . .” 

“They did eat.” Food for the famishing in body, 
yes, but above all the famishing in soul. The bread of 
life He gives to you, gives with His divine blessing, 
gives that you may eat. He “gave thanks,” we are told. 
The words He uttered are not written down, but it is 
certain that He prayed the Father in heaven to show 
forth His love and His mercy that the hungry might 
be fed; it is certain Christ prayed for the welfare of 
those precious, wandering souls, prayed for the com¬ 
ing into their life of the Spirit of truth, Who could set 
them free from their bondage to sin. And as He 
prayed the Father in heaven heard, pouring out on them 
the manna of life in the gracious words of His only- 
begotten Son. “So they did eat.” 

But they did more than this. The historian adds,— 
“And were filled.” This is the wonderfully glorious 
thing about salvation and all of God’s gifts, especially 
when they are for the welfare of the soul. Not only 
is a partial meal given, but every need is fully supplied. 


90 


WRECKS REBUILT 


Note I say need. All have wants, but there is a vast 
difference in God’s sight between our wants and our 
needs. Some time ago I was visiting a certain hospital 
where drug fiends are sent. In one of the little rooms 
was a woman, who was shrieking for some one to come 
and give her an injection of morphine. This was her 
want, her desire, her craving. But what she really 
needed was the saving and keeping power of God, given 
to the repentant sinner and applied daily to daily weak¬ 
ness as each weakness fought for the right to rule over 
the eternal things of the soul. I tell you, if you have 
a real need, if in that need you call out in prayer to the 
Father, believing that in His Son He will not keep 
from you what you need to make the crooked things 
of your life straight, the weak things strong, and the 
strong things unconquerable, I tell you if you will turn 
to God in prayer you will not only receive temporary 
relief, but a lasting satisfying benefit for soul and body. 

“And they took up of the broken meat that was left 
seven baskets.” Not only enough, but some to spare. 
How like God! Does it not recall to you what you 
learned, many of you as children, of God’s gospel 
measure? “Good measure, pressed down, and shaken 
together, and running over.” 18 Does it not remind you 
of the time you learned the words of the shepherd king? 
“My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy 
shall follow me all the days of my life.” 19 

Always something left over when God gives. This 
is to make you take courage. No doubt you have often 
thought it useless to ask God to feed the hunger of 
your soul because you thought your hunger too great. 

18 Luke 6:38. 19 Ps. 23:5, 6. 


THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST 


91 


Surely the God, Who can feed more than 4,000 at one 
time, feed them from a few bits of bread and a few 
small fishes, feed them so that they “were filled,” and 
then still have seven large baskets of food left, surely 
this God will not find it hard to feed your one hungry 
soul. No one need fear to go to God because of the 
thought, “Has He enough; can He; will He help?” God 
not only can and will, He offers you more than enough 
to encourage you and to lead you to know that no mat¬ 
ter how great may be your need, no matter how often 
you may need His help, there will always be enough for 
the satisfying of each need and some left over for the 
next time. The old servant of God testified: “The sal¬ 
vation of the righteous is of the Lord; he is their 
strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall 
help them, and deliver them; he shall deliver them from 
the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.” 20 
The prophet of God says of God’s dealings with sinful, 
rebellious Israel: “In the time of their trouble, when 
they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven, 
and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them 
saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their 
enemies . . . when they returned, and cried unto 

thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times 
didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies.” 21 

The king of heaven His table spreads, 

And dainties crown His board. 

Not all the boasted joys of earth 
Could such delight afford. 

20 Ps. 37 : 39 , 40 . 

21 Neh. 9:27, 28. 


WRECKS REBUILT 


Pardon and peace to dying men, 
And endless life are given; 

And the rich blood that Jesus shed 
To raise our souls to heaven. 

Thousands of souls in glory now, 
Were fed and feasted here; 

And thousands more still on the way 
Around the board appear. 


Are you one of these blessed ones? 


THE REALITY AND NATURE OF HELL. 

Matt. 23:33, and Matt. 25 : 30, 41. Ye serpents, ye gener¬ 
ation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? 

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from 
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and 
his angels: 

Some time ago I had a conversation with a man in 
one of our city hospitals. I had been trying to lead him 
to an acceptance of Christ by the way of God’s love 
for fallen men. Every approach on this line was re¬ 
pulsed and with each new attempt on my part to make 
him think a little about the eternal welfare of his soul 
he became more and more abusive. Finally I changed 
my tactics and instead of appealing to him on the 
grounds of God’s love I began to attack him with the 
Law of God, endeavoring in this way to startle his con¬ 
science and make him confess that he was a condemned 
creature in the sight of the righteous Judge of heaven. 
This line of attack failed too. And why? Because 
the man had fallen so far from the truth that he had 
no conception of what it means to meet the living God 
and to be condemned by Him to an eternity in hell. 
Indeed, he denied the existence of hell, saying he had no 
fear of what did not have any place in the universe. 

As I kept pressing God’s truth home to him, he fin¬ 
ally turned, like an animal at bay, and said: “Why I 
guess I never did any harm to anybody.” To this I 
replied: “Perhaps not. But did you ever do any good 

93 


94 


WRECKS REBUILT 


for anybody. What, for instance, did you ever do to 
help a drunkard?” Quick as a flash the answer came 
back: “Who ever helped me when I was drunk?” 

With these words this poor soul, which has since 
gone to its Maker, tried to evade the issue of sin,— 
hell. As he said these words I was reminded of the 
remark of an old saint of God,—“Those most anxious 
to deny the existence of hell are most frequently the 
ones who are closest to hell.” 

The one great claim of all who deny the existence 
of hell is that this truth “was added to the gospel.” 
This claim cannot hold water. It is utterly false, and 
has as its end, not the getting rid of hell, but the getting 
rid of the Scripture’s testimony against sin and the un¬ 
repentant sinner. For this class, as a warning from 
God to forsake their blasphemy, and to everyone here, 
who may be on the border line, as a call to stand fast 
in the truth, I wish to show you, from the Gospel, that 
is the New Testament, that there is such a place for 
condemned souls as “hell.” 

The Bible, as it is right here in front of me on this 
desk, is in every respect the same as that which came 
from the hands of the inspired writers. Time does 
not permit an extended proof of this statement. Suffice 
it to say that the testimony of the ages, embracing the 
most wonderful array of great minds, both of the 
friends and opponents of the Church, is unanimous on 
this point. It has been conclusively proven that the 
entire Bible as we have it can be restored, with the ex¬ 
ception of some twenty verses, from the quotations of 
the friends and enemies of the Church who lived in the 
first two centuries of the Christian era. 


THE REALITY AND NATURE OF HELL 


95 


Now the question is,—“Does this Bible teach the 
reality of hell as a place of punishment for wicked, un¬ 
repentant souls?” From the Bible the answer comes in 
no hesitating voice. Both the Old and the New Testa¬ 
ments teach the reality of hell’s existence. 

I cannot take the time to quote at length from the 
Old Testament to prove that it teaches the existence of 
hell. And after all, the opponents of hell do not bother 
themselves much about the Old Testament. What they 
are after is to discredit the Gospel and the authority of 
Christ and His Church. So I pass over the Old Testa¬ 
ment, only asking you to notice such passages as these: 

“And they shall go forth, and shall look upon the car¬ 
casses of the men that have transgressed against me; 
for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be 
quenched.” 1 

“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
shall awake, some to everlasting fire, and to shame and 
everlasting contempt.” 2 

Let us see now, whether there is any truth in the 
claim that the doctrine of hell has been added to the 
Gospel and that this doctrine was never taught by 
Christ or His twelve Disciples. 

In my presentation of the Bible evidence against these 
false statements, I shall quote in full from Matthew, 
then give a list of the teaching of the other Evangelists, 
and finally quote in full again from the Book of 
Revelation. 

Matthew 5:22. Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, 
shall be in danger of hell fire. 5 :2 9> 3°- And if thy 
right eye ensnare thee, pluck it out, and cast it from 

1 Isa. 66: 24. 2 Dan. 12: 2. 


96 


WRECKS REBUILT 


thee; far it is profitable for thee that one of thy mem¬ 
bers should perish, and not that thy whole body be cast 
into hell. And if thy right hand ensnare thee, cut 
it off and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee 
that one of thy members should perish, and not that 
thy whole body should go into hell. 10:28. Fear him 
who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 11:23. 
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, 
shalt be brought down to hell. 13:30. I will say to 
the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind 
them in bundles to burn them. 13:40-42. As there¬ 
fore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so 
shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man 
shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out 
of his kingdom all things that offend, and them* which 
do iniquity; and shall cast them into the furnace of 
fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 16:18. 
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and 
upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it. 23:13. Ye make 
him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 
23:33. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can 
ye escape the judgment of hell. 23:46. And these 
shall go away into everlasting punishment. 

Whose words are these? They are the statements 
of Christ Himself. Are they plain? Do they teach the 
reality of hell? You cannot deny they do. So, then, 
Christ did teach the reality of hell’s existence and He 
taught it in the midst of His gospel, the message of 
possible salvation. Nor are these all the passages in 
which Christ speaks about hell and its punishment. Just 
take a copy of Matthew , read it through for yourself, 


THE REALITY AND NATURE OF HELL 


97 


and see how many more things Christ had to say about 
hell. 

What Matthew says Christ taught about hell is sub¬ 
stantiated by the other Evangelists. I refer you to 
Mark 3:28, 29; 9:42-48; 16:16; Luke 10:15; 12:8- 
10; 13:27, 28; 14:15-24; 16:19-31; John 3:26; 5:29; 
etc. 

These passages ought to satisfy any mind. And they 
would satisfy any mind not biased against the Scrip¬ 
tures. So the sinner, when confronted with such an 
array of gospel evidence against him, smugly and defi¬ 
antly says: “O, well, Christ said that while He was on 
earth when He didn’t know any better, for He had 
emptied Himself of His Divinity.” 

We know this to be contrary to Scripture. But for 
the sake of argument, let us admit it for the time being, 
and then let us see whether Christ taught or revealed 
the existence of hell after He had returned to heaven. 
We turn to the Book of Revelation where we find what 
Christ taught and revealed from heaven. Is the teach¬ 
ing the same? 

14:9-11. And the third angel followed them, saying 
with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his 
image, and receive his mark on his forehead, or on his 
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of 
God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup 
of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire 
and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in 
the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their tor¬ 
ment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no 
rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, 
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 19:20. 


98 


WRECKS REBUILT 


These were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth 
with brimstone. 20:13-15. And the sea gave up the 
dead that were in it; and death and Hades delivered up 
the dead who were in them; and they were judged, 
every one, according to their works. And death and 
Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second 
death, the lake of fire. And whosoever was not found 
written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. 

What have you to say now? Did the risen, exalted 
Christ, He, Who sat down at the right hand of glory 
in all the fullness of His divine nature, did He teach 
and reveal from heaven the reality of hell? 

Nor are these all the passages in Revelation in which 
Christ as “very God of very God” speaks about hell. 
Take that marvelous book and read in addition to the 
words already quoted such passages as 9:1, 2, 11; 11:7; 
16:8; 20:1-3; 21:27. After you have read these ask 
yourself, if you dare, whether Christ in heaven taught 
what He taught as the God-man on earth. 

But I know what some of you are thinking right now. 
You are silently arguing something like this,—“Yes, 
Jesus taught the doctrine of hell, but He Himself knew 
better and only fell in with current opinion to secure 
a hearing with the people of His day and to drive home 
the truth about sin separating from God.” In other 
words, Christ knew the current opinion to be false, but 
yet taught it Himself for practical ends. 

You poor, self-deluded creatures. You are like the 
man who sawed off the limb he was sitting on and then 
wondered why he hurt himself. You are like a man 
who builds a scaffold to reach some high place and then 
knocks the props from under while he is on top. Do 


THE REALITY AND NATURE OF HELL 


99 


you not see your inconsistency? If Christ taught what 
He knew to be false, He lied. If He lied, He sinned. 
If He sinned, He is not God. If He is not God where 
is your hope of salvation ? Answer me that if you can. 

Worship a Saviour and a God, Who deliberately lies 
to you, if you want to. But, we, who believe in the sin¬ 
lessness of Him, Who said: “I am the truth;” 3 believe 
every word that His Spirit has written for us in the 
Book of God, the Holy Bible. And so we accept the 
reality of hell. 

What Christ taught on earth and from heaven His 
Apostles and His Church have always taught. Were it 
not so we would have the founders of His Church and 
His Church giving the lie direct to their Master and 
Teacher. This is inconceivable. Take the Bible, turn 
to the writings of Paul, or James, or Peter, or of whom 
you will, and you will soon find that one and all teach 
the reality of hell. Says Paul: “The Lord shall be re¬ 
vealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming 
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and 
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who 
shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 4 
Says Peter: “God spared not the angels that sinned, but 
cast them down to hell.” 5 Says James: “The tongue 
. is set on fire of hell.” 6 

What then shall we say in the face of such evidence? 
There is only one answer to you, if you deny what God 
teaches,—“Woe unto you who pervert Scripture and 
teach the doctrines of men and of devils. Beware lest 

3 John 14:6. 4 II Thess. 1: 8, 9. 5 II Pet. 2:4. 

8 Jas. 3 * 6 . 


100 


WRECKS REBUILT 


Christ take you in the midst of your blasphemy, bind you 
with the chains of His righteous judgment, and cast 
you into the very hell you are seeking so eagerly to 
destroy.” 

The reality of hell having been established we can 
now examine God’s Word to learn the nature of hell. 
Matthew relates these words of Christ,—“Cast ye the 

unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. 

Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” 7 
Peter, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, writes, 
“He also went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 
which sometimes were disobedient.” 8 Here is a re¬ 
markable contrast of explaining words,— fire, darkness , 
spirits. This contrast, divinely given, tells us the na¬ 
ture of hell. 

Hell is a place of darkness. “The children of the 
kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness.” 9 
“Then said the king to the servants, . . . cast him 

into the outer darkness.” 10 “God spared not the angels 
that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered 
them into chains of darkness.” 11 “These are wells with¬ 
out water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; for 
whom the mist of darkness is reserved.” 12 

Hell is a place of fire. I will not take the time to 
requote the Scripture to prove this. I wish to take a 
few minutes to discuss the nature of this fire. Is it a 
physical flame? a material fire, such as you and I see 
every day? I do not believe that Scripture wishes us 
to believe this. Hell’s fire casts no light, for hell is 
dark. Hell’s fire is intended for spiritual beings, not 

7 Matt. 25:30, 41. 8 1 Pet. 3:19. 9 Matt. 8:12. 

10 Matt. 22:13. “II Pet. 2:4. 12 II Pet. 2:17. 



THE REALITY AND NATURE OF HELL 101 


for fleshly bodies, and material, physical fire could not 
harm or affect the spiritual. 

What then is the nature of hell’s fire? It is “men¬ 
tal and spiritual.” Try to picture to yourself a being 
whose mind and soul are keyed to the highest degree of 
sensitiveness, a mind which fully sees and appreciates 
all the terribleness of its sins against God, a mind 
which sees and realizes most fully all the good 
it is now deprived of, and then imagine, if 
you can, what must be the awful, awful agony that mind 
feels. Picture not only a mind, a soul as well, a soul 
that dare not enter into the presence of its Maker, a 
soul that must endure forever the remorse of conscience, 
a soul that knows not the loving embrace of Christ’s 
arms, a soul that can hear only a faint echo of the con¬ 
versation of heaven, shut out, away from the Saviour, 
condemned to live with the devil’s spawn! What the 
unfathomable and unutterable longing of that soul! 

“Take an account of it from the lips of Jesus Christ 
himself; speaking of hell, he says, ‘Where their worm 
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,’ This is the 
description he gives of it over and over again in Mark 9. 
By ‘the worm that dieth not’ is ... . understood 

the gnawing of a guilty conscience, or that painful 
remorse which sinners will feel when they remember 
the sin and folly which brought them to hell. Thus 
. . . . Abraham speaks to Dives, and says, ‘Son, 

remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good 
things.’ . . . .” 13 “Memory will be a dreadful 

source of misery. ‘Son, remember* . . . Poor sin¬ 

ners will remember the good instructions they received 


13 Luke 16: 25. 


102 


WRECKS REBUILT 


from their parents, the faithful sermons they heard 
from their ministers, the solemn admonitions the}' had 
from their own consciences. They will remember with 
what contempt they treated serious piety; and in vain 
will they wish to be in the place of those they once 
despised. They will remember what Sabbaths they mis¬ 
spent, what mercies they abused, what judgments they 
slighted. It will be intolerable for them to reflect on 
their folly in parting with heaven for such wretched 
trifles. How despicably small will the pleasure of sin 
then appear to them. They will not be able to be them¬ 
selves when they think for what they lost their God, 
their heaven, and their souls. And this will fill them 
with the most horrible rage and fury. They will be 
inwardly racked with envy, hatred, and resentment 
against God, against their tempters, against the com¬ 
panions of their sins, and especially against themselves.” 
Indeed, they will suffer “the fire which is never 
quenched,” the fire of a memory that will not be stilled, 
but which ever says: “See what you might have had, 
had you obeyed God.” 

Can we wonder that “When St. Paul reasoned ‘of 
righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix 
trembled / ” 14 Felix, the representative and the con¬ 
troller of the world’s greatest power, trembling before 
little Paul, a Jew. This is God’s warning to every un¬ 
repentant sinner who seeks to deny the reality of hell 
or argue that hell’s punishment is a light thing. If you re¬ 
fuse to take God’s own testimony then I say to you: “And 
thou . . . shalt be brought down to hell ... it 
shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the 


14 Acts 24:25. 


THE REALITY AND NATURE OF HELL 103 


day of judgment, than for thee.” 15 “Be not deceived; 
God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap.” 16 

May God have mercy upon our sinful souls. Amen. 


18 Matt. 11:23, 24. 


18 Gal. 6:7. 


A NEW YEAR’S THOUGHT* 

Luke 13 : 6 - 9 . ft He spake also this parable: A certain man 
had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought 
fruit thereon, and found none. 

Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these 
three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: 
cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground ? 

And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year 
also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it : 

And if it bear fruit, well : and if not, then after that thou shalt 
cut it down. 

There are times when God seems nearer to us than 
at others, when His Holy Word seems to strike home 
more deeply than usually, when we are more open to 
His gracious call than at other times. Such a time is 
our birthday. Having been brought to another mile¬ 
post in our earthly journey, that indeed is a hardened 
heart which can pass its birth anniversary without some 
thought of God. Such a time is Good Friday, when 
we look upon the Lamb of God, slain for our sins and 
see that heart burst with sorrow under the monstrous 
cruelty of rebellious nature. What shall we say of the 
soul that can look on this scene and pass this day by 
without one prayer to God for forgiveness? Another 
time is Easter, that 

Day of wonder, day of gladness 
when we see Christ triumph for us over sin, death, 
and the grave. Have you never greeted that day 
With hymns of victory 

for the joy you have felt as Christ drew nearer to you 

♦After the German of Ziethe in his Immanuel, Berlin, 1879. 

104 


A NEW YEAR’S THOUGHT 


105 


in blessed remembrances of childhood days? Another 
such day is the last day of life. Never yet have I wit¬ 
nessed the death of a sinner without seeing his lips 
frame the words, “My God.” 

But Christ does not want you to wait until this last 
and doubtful chance to draw close to His saving power 
and taste of His life-giving love. And so He has 
graciously permitted you to come here this night, to the 
last service of the dying year, that you may hear of 
Him, and hearing of Him, see Him in faith, looking 
unto the Author and Finisher of salvation. 

Hear, first, of the Divine possession in life. “A cer¬ 
tain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard.” Have 
you stopped recently to think that you belong to God? 
Have you given any consideration to the wonderful 
truth that God has a claim on your life? If you have 
not, now is your opportunity. 

Do you remember the words you learned when you 
first began to learn about God? Does not this sound 
familiar ,—I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker 
of heaven and earth. You are God’s because you are 
in His vineyard, planted there by His creative might. 
As long as you are living in God’s vineyard you are 
bound to obey its laws and live its life, just as when a 
man goes from one country to another, even if he does 
not become a citizen of the new country, yet he is bound 
by its laws and customs and is owned by that country 
as long as he lives in it and is a receiver of its food, 
clothing, etc. 

You are God’s, moreover, not only by His creative 
might, but especially because of what He does for you. 
One of God’s greatest saints once wrote these words as 


106 


WRECKS REBUILT 


the contrite sinner’s recognition of the Divine posses¬ 
sion of his life,—“I believe . . . that He has given 

and still preserves to me my body and soul, with all 
my limbs and senses, my reason and all the faculties 
of my mind, together with my raiment, food, home, and 
family, and all my property; that He daily provides me 
abundantly with all the necessaries of life, protects me 
from all danger, and preserves me and guards me 
against all evil; all which He does out of pure, paternal, 
and divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or 
worthiness in me; for all which I am in duty bound 
to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him. This is most 
certainly true.”f 

Many of you cannot make this confession tonight be¬ 
cause you have lost sight of the place God should have 
in your life. Many of you can make this confession 
tonight because, having turned from your sin, you have 
allowed God to find His place in your life again. And 
some of you have been able to make this confession 
with increasing surety and joy as the days of the now 
dying year have sped by because you have tried to love 
your Saviour and have the fullest realization in your 
life of God’s creative and providential might. All of 
you can taste the personal peace which comes from a 
personal realization of the truth of this confession, 
taste it with increasing fullness every second of the year 
that now lies before you if you will only acknowledge 
and live the divine possession of your life. 

The next lesson God would have you learn from this 
dying hour of the year is the Divine expectency in your 
life. “I come seeking fruit on this fig tree.” These 

f Luther, Small Catechism, 2d art. of Creed. 


A NEW YEAR’S THOUGHT 


107 


are the Master’s words. They apply to you tonight as 
truly as they applied to the people of the Master’s day 
when for three long years, both He and His Apostles 
went from one end of His vineyard to the other plant¬ 
ing the seed of mercy and truth. During the past year 
He has come, time and again, seeking fruit in your 
life; has He found it? 

When did He come seeking fruit? He came in the 
hour of your good fortune and happiness and sought 
to find the fruit of thankfulness and obedience. He 
came in the hour of your cross and tribulation and 
looked for the fruit of patience and hope. He came to 
you in His Word and Gospel and sought for the fruit 
of righteousness, that is so pleasing to Him. Where is 
then your fruit? Have you made your reckoning with 
Him? This very minute there come before you and 
testify against you every morning and evening in which 
you did not thank and call upon Him; every noonday 
in which you did not return thanks to Him for His 
gifts; every hour and day in which you have given no 
thought to Him. This very minute there come before 
you and testify against you every joy and satisfaction, 
every testing and trial that did not lead your heart 
to repentance and faith. This very minute there come 
before you and testify against you every proclamation 
of the truth, every gracious leading of God, that did not 
have any effect on you, which were wasted on you. 
Where is the fruit of the Spirit that He seeks daily in 
every life,—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, 1 —fruit, which it 
is His will, that you should bring forth in His might 

1 Gal. 5:22, 23. 


108 


WRECKS REBUILT 


and grace? Have you made your reckoning and has it 
shown these good results, or have your days been spent 
in laying up “the works of the flesh, . . . which 

are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious¬ 
ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revelings, and such like?” 2 Do you know 
what God says of these things? “I tell you beforehand, 
as I have also told you in time past, that they that do 
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” 3 “I 
come seeking fruit on this fig tree.” Has He found the 
good “fruit of the Spirit” or has He discovered only 
the decay of “the works of the flesh?” “I come seeking 
fruit on this fig tree, and find none.” 

“Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And 
he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year 
also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear 
fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut 
it down.” This is the conversation between the Master, 
the Lord of the vineyard, and His chief Gardner. “Cut 
down the unfruitful vine; why should it take up ground 
in which I can plant another vine that will bear fruit.” 
This is the verdict of the Lord of the vineyard. It is 
the just verdict of cold justice. It is the righteous ver¬ 
dict of the Law, which knows no mercy and cannot be 
touched by love and grace to be lenient with the law¬ 
breaker. The law of God is the law of fruitfulness. 
“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh 
away,” 4 this is the divine verdict in life. No fruit, no 
life; no life, “men gather them, and cast them into the 
fire, and they are burned.” 5 Perhaps many times in 

2 Gal. 5:19-21. 8 Gal. 5:21. 4 John 15:2. 6 John 15:6. 


A NEW YEAR’S THOUGHT 


109 


the past this divine verdict has been pronounced against 
you, condemning you, and yet you have been spared, 
given time to repent, to turn from your evil way, to the 
way of the Master. And all because there is operating 
in your life that which you have often refused to hear 
or heed, the law of divine love in Christ Jesus, the 
chief Gardner. 

“Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about 
it, and dung it.” The axe of God was many a time laid 
to the roots of your life-tree to cut it down for the fire, 
but again and again was it spared because of the chief 
Gardner’s pleadings. Some One has prayed for you 
and interceded with His merciful Word before the judg¬ 
ment seat, and that One is your Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. Perhaps you have wilfully despised and mocked 
Him and closed the door of your heart against Him. 
Yet He prayed for you. Perhaps you have made His 
temple a place of sin and shame. Yet He prayed for 
you. Perhaps you grieved and offended His Spirit, des¬ 
pised His Word and the preaching of His Gospel, de¬ 
nied and defamed His Holy Name. Yet He prayed for 
you. Perhaps the ever-increasing load of your sins and 
your sinning broke His loving heart and trampled His 
tender mercy and abundant grace under foot. Yet He 
still prayed for you; prayed, prayed, prayed,—“Father 
forgive.” 

And finally note the divine possibility in life. Says 
the chief Gardner, Jesus Christ: “I am the vine, ye are 
the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
same bringeth forth much fruit.” 6 And to this He adds: 
“As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it 

6 John 15 - 5 - 


110 


WRECKS REBUILT 


abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in 
me . . . for apart from me ye can do nothing.” 7 

Every sin is the result of but one thing,—being away 
from Christ. So long as He cultivates and fertilizes 
the tree it cannot but bear fruit. As long as your life 
is hid in Him it is hid from the searching-out power 
of sin, for in Him is no sin, while His very righteous¬ 
ness drives sin away from His presence as the rising 
sun dispels the fog on the lowlands. A few years ago, 
I climbed to the top of one of the hills in the foothills 
of Vermont. It was a gloriously bright day with the 
sun shining down in full power. As I stood on that 
hill-top I saw from time to time shadows go racing across 
the face of the valley below, shadows now great and 
long-enduring, now small and fast-fleeting. Was it the 
sun that cast these shadows? That is the popular way 
of explaining it. But in reality the shadows were cast 
by the clouds that came in between the sun and the 
earth. So it is in your life. It is the nature of the Sun 
of righteousness to cast the light and life-giving rays 
onto and into your life. It is also the nature of sin 
to come between you and God’s Sun that a shadow may 
be cast over your life. But this need not happen. If 
you will hear the call of God’s Spirit, as it comes down 
to you from the towering hill of Calvary, floating on 
the stream of Christ’s atoning blood, if you will hear 
this voice and let it lead you up the mountain, you will 
find at last that high point of Love to which no cloud 
can ascend for it is higher than the highest cloud the 
devil has ever sent forth from the swamp of hell. Will 
you hear now, recognizing the divine possession in your 
7 John 15 : 4 , 5. 


A NEW YEAR’S THOUGHT 


111 


life, seeing the divine expectancy in your life, acknowl¬ 
edging the justice of the divine verdict against your 
life, will you? Will you, recognizing these facts, hear? 
Then can you know the divine possibility in your 
life. 

“Life everlasting” He offers to thee— 

Pardoning grace setting sin’s captive free; 

Love that is infinite, perfect, Divine— 

Such is the portion which now may be thine. 

Why not O, why not trust Jesus? 

“Peace, passing knowledge,” He giveth His own; 

Joy that thou otherwise never hadst known, 

Wilt thou not come, and, in coming be blest, 

Proving the sweetness of perfect heart-rest? 

Why not O, why not trust Jesus? 

“Marvelous love,” passing all human thought, 

Love which alone could these wonders have wrought— 
Such is the love that is waiting for thee, 

Tenderly whispering, “Come unto Me.” 

Why not O, why not trust Jesus? 


THE PATHWAY OF DEATH.* 


Isa. 53 : 7 - 9 . He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he 
opened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, 
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not 
his mouth. 

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall 
declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the 
living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in 
his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any de¬ 
ceit in his mouth. 

Death is always a solemn event. When we stand by 
the lifeless body of some friend or dear one and look 
upon that face set in the elusive calm of the last sleep; 
when we stand thus and think of the soul which has 
passed through the ante-chamber of the grave into the 
throne-room of God, there steals over our heart a sil¬ 
ence-impelling awe. 

In the rotunda of the Congressional Library at Wash¬ 
ington the great clock is guarded and brooded over by 
a draped figure which grasps a giant scythe in its hand. 
This is a picture of the popular conception of death. 
But to the believer Death is not the grim reaper. To 
the follower of the Lamb, Death is majestic in its sure¬ 
ness, awe-inspiring in its dominion, but it is not the 
Great Conqueror. 

The words of the Prophet give us a picture of death 
as it leads our Saviour along the pathway to His tomb 

* Reprinted, with certain omissions, from the Author’s Five¬ 
fold Pathway. 


112 


THE PATHWAY OF DEATH 


113 


that we may contemplate Him as He goes and take to 
ourselves the great lessons concerning sin, patience, and 
discipleship, which this Pathway of Death brings to us. 

i. The Lessons of Sin. 

As we study the life of Christ and follow that won¬ 
derful Person from the manger-cradle to the rock-hewn 
grave we cannot but think it strange that so beautiful 
a character should have met so violent and horrible a 
death. And, perforce, we ask ourselves what this Jesus 
did to deserve so terrible a fate? 

To answer this question we must turn to the docu¬ 
mentary evidence and record of His death. In v. 9* 
we read, “he did no violence, neither was any deceit in 
his mouth.” This is only another way of saying what 
Pontius Pilate said to the raging mob as it howled, 
“Crucify him; crucify him.” You recall the scene in 
“the hall of judgment.” There stands Jesus, still wear¬ 
ing the white robes Herod had commanded his soldiers 
to throw about His shoulders. There He stands as 
Pilate looks at Him in amazement, wondering that so 
humble a Jew can arouse so mighty a tumult. There 
He stands as Pilate puts to Him the eternal question, 
“What is truth?” There He stands as Pilate goes “out 
again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him 
no fault at all.” (Jn. 18, 38). Pilate was no fool. Rome 
selected no inexperienced men for her provincial gover¬ 
nors. No, he was shrewd, keen, and crafty, and could 
see through the subterfuge of the priestly classes. So 
he spoke the GREAT EXONERATION, “I find in 
him no fault at all.” 

Out of the mouth of this pagan judge came the testi- 


114 


WRECKS REBUILT 


mony of Christ’s sinlessness. Is not this a comfort for 
us? Just forget for the time being the Divinity of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Look upon Him for a moment only 
as a man in whom we have trusted, as a man whom we 
have followed as the example of all that is good, noble, 
and true. Here, then, is our comfort, the ground of 
our continued faith in the man, Jesus, the basis of an 
enduring fellowship with the Carpenter of Nazareth, 
for we have not been deceived in Him, His claims to 
purity, and the power of purity still stand. His death 
is not ignoble, but glorious, the supreme vindication of 
character, for History has spoken the great exoneration, 
“I find in Him no fault at all.” 

Rejoice in the man, Jesus; let your faith be firm; let 
your following of Him continue, for “he had done no 
violence, neither was deceit in his mouth.” 

We must seek elsewhere, therefore, than in the char¬ 
acter of Christ for the lessons of sin taught us by the 
Pathway of Death. The secret is revealed in the words, 
“my people.” The sin of the people is the secret of the 
Pathway of Death. 

This sin of the people is the sin of the will. Will¬ 
ingly His people bring Christ to the cross and its ter¬ 
rible death. The people, whom God had chosen before 
the foundation of the world to be a peculiar treasure, 
rise and slay the Servant He sends to lead them from 
the captivity of sin to the conquest of salvation. The 
unbeliever, the scoffer would call this “the irony of 
fate.” But the pathway of Christ’s death reveals to us 
who believe the true nature of the slaying of Jehovah’s 
Servant. The sinfulness of the human will, this is the 
great lesson of the Pathway of Death. The man of 


THE PATHWAY OF DEATH 


115 


God speaks of the desire of man, which is evil from 
his youth up. (Gen. 8:21.) The prophets tell us of the 
stiffed-necked people, who will not hear of the mercies 
of God (Exod. 32:9; 2; Chron. 30:8, etc.) Christ, 
weeping over Jerusalem, depicts how often He would 
have gathered the children of God under His protect¬ 
ing, redeeming grace, but they “would not.” (Mt. 23 :^y.) 

Are your wills any more submissive to the will of 
God than were the wills of those children of God in 
Christ’s day? Human nature has not changed; the 
human will is still the same. Only as our wills are 
brought to the Pathway of Death can they be changed. 
Let us, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, give our wills 
to Him that He may shape and mould them to His ser¬ 
vice, lest it be said of us that we have sent Christ anew 
along the pathway of death, and we be rejected. 

But the Prophet does not stop here in his delineation 
of the lessons of sin disclosed by the Pathway of Death. 
We read not only “my people,” but also, “for the trans¬ 
gressions of my people was he stricken.” Christ was 
brought to the cross by the perverse will of His people, 
but back of this perverse will lay a perverse nature, ex¬ 
pressing itself daily in transgressions. The water a city 
drinks can be no clearer than the streams of supply, un¬ 
less it is put through an artificial process of purification. 
Neither can the human will be purer than the nature 
which lies behind it. Until that nature is purified by a 
process from without, the will must remain impure, and 
that nature must transgress. 

We hear much today of “the will to believe,” as if 
faith, which requires a pure heart, a regenerate heart, 
could spring from the uncleansed will of sinful man. 


116 


WRECKS REBUILT 


We hear much of the “divinity” coming to fulness in 
man by a process of natural development from within. 
But the pathway of Christ’s death tells us clearly, “For 
the transgressions of my people was he stricken.” 

2. The Lessons of Patience. 

The patience of Christ, as He trod the Pathway of 
Death, was threefold: (i) He was patient with His 
enemies; (2) He was patient with His friends; and (3) 
He was patient with His Father. With His enemies 
He showed Himself patient with the long-suffering of 
a just cause. He knew that He had come to help them 
to return to God. He realized the value of His purpose 
in becoming man, and so when His enemies came to 
seize Him and to drag Him to destruction He could say 
in all calmness, “Whom seek ye?” And when “They 
answered him, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus saith unto them, 
I am he.” (Jn. 18:4, 5.) And then when He was 
nailed to the cross and subjected to its awful agony He 
could still say, “Father, forgive them; for they know 
not what they do.” (Lk. 23:34.) O, sublime patience 
of a just cause. 

With His friends He showed the patience of the 
Master Teacher. How often His most intimate fol¬ 
lowers misunderstood Him and misconstrued His mes¬ 
sage and mission! How often their earthly, carnal in¬ 
terpretations of His teachings entirely hid the spiritual, 
heavenly truth! Yet always was He patient and gently 
led them back again and again as they wandered away 
in the vanity of their warped wisdom. Thus, when His 
bosom friend, Peter, thrice denied Him, He turned to 
him with no angry words of reproach; He only “looked 


THE PATHWAY OF DEATH 


117 


upon Peter . . . And Peter went out and wept bit¬ 

terly.” (Jn. 22:61, 62.) The patience of the Master 
Teacher destroying the pride of man! 

And He was patient before His Father. When temp¬ 
tation came upon Him, He met it with the word of His 
Father. (Mt. 4:4, etc.) When in the garden of 
agony the sweat of blood rolled from off His brow, His 
only word was one of prayer. (Mt. 26:36-46.) And 
on the cross He summoned none of His myriads of 
angels to rescue Him, but patiently endured its agony, 
because He knew it was His Father’s will so to save 
the world. 

Like Christ, our great pattern, we have our enemies, 
our well-meaning friends, and our Father to deal with. 
As Christ has set us the example, our motto too must 
be PATIENCE. Patience with our enemies that we 
may win them by our example to a confidence in the 
sincerity of our profession and through this confidence 
to an examination of the faith we profess, which will 
surely lead the way to Christ Jesus. Patience with our 
friends that our friendship may grow deeper and deeper 
day by day, and with this increase in friendship there 
will come a proportionate increase in our ability to work 
together for Christ and His kingdom as we present a 
solid front to the enemy and their leader, Satan. Pati¬ 
ence with our Father that we may hear the still, small 
voice of conscience directing, encouraging, and strength¬ 
ening us in our daily tasks; patience with our Father 
when He sends the bitter medicine of afflictions upon us 
to cure our soul’s sickness of sin; patience with the 
Father in our success lest we forget Him and fall into 
sin; yea, patience in every walk of life to our growth 


118 


WRECKS REBUILT 


in grace, our strengthening in faith, our increase in fel¬ 
lowship with Him. 

In closing our present study, let us glance for a brief 
survey at 

3. The Lessons of Discipleship, 
our walking with Christ along the Pathway of Death 
brings to us. The Prophet says that Christ trod this 
pathway to secure for us deliverance from sin and 
death. Everywhere, Scripture either looks forward to 
or backward upon “the Cross of Christ/’ The Old 
Testament prophets with each new revelation saw more 
clearly the coming of the Cross. The New Testament 
writers look back to it for their courage and power. St. 
Paul boasted that he would know nothing “save Jesus 
Christ, and him crucified.” (I Cor. 2:2.) 

In the Cross of Christ I Glory. 

How many of us, when we sing this hymn, really stop 
to think of the terrific import of these words? They 
point backward to the Pathway of Death and indicate 
the nature of our discipleship. 

To glory in the Cross means first, to appropriate the 
holiness of Him who hung upon it. We have done so, 
you say. But, O! what a weak faith ours must be if 
it is to be measured by the degree of the purity and 
holiness so many of us manifest in our daily life. 

To glory in the Cross means, further, that we must 
appropriate our share of the ignominy of Christ. If we 
glory in the Cross we must bear the scorn and ridicule 
of the world. Does some one say, “There is no scorn 
or ridicule?” We reply, “Dear friend, there is some¬ 
thing the matter with your glorying.” No one can really 


THE PATHWAY OF DEATH 


119 


glory in the Cross and have the good will of the un¬ 
believer. Vinegar cannot mix with milk without turn¬ 
ing it sour. Neither can we glory in the Cross and fail 
to make enemies or retain the friendship of the forces 
of Satan, for every Christian bears about him a rebuke 
for and judgment against the world, the flesh, and the 
devil. Every Christian is “manifestly declared to be 
the epistle of Christ” and “read of all men.” (II Cor. 
3:2, 3-) 

To glory in the Cross of Christ means lastly, to ap¬ 
propriate Christ’s consecration of the will to God. The 
one object of our life should be consecration; i.e., de¬ 
voted, devout, loving, and self-sacrificing service for the 
Master. James tells us, “faith without works is dead.” 
(Jas. 2:20.) This is only another way of saying that 
to glory in the Cross without personal consecration is 
but vain-glory. The wheels of the engine cannot turn 
to draw the train unless they are connected with the 
piston and the boiler. Each of us has a train of service 
to draw. The wheels of our glorying must be con¬ 
nected with the piston of consecration and the boiler of 
God’s Word if our task is to be accomplished, our mis¬ 
sion in life fulfilled. 


SPIRITUAL SUCCESS. 


Luke 8 :8, 15 . And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, 
and bare fruit a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, 
he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and 
good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit 
with patience. 

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: 
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white 
as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be 
as wool.” 1 “The Son of man is come to seek and to 
save that which was lost.” 2 These are two very pre¬ 
cious jewels from God’s heavenly treasure, the Bible. 
Many have heard these promises, many have accepted 
them, many have come to treasure them as beyond all 
price. Yet, how few really have the perfect realization 
of these two promises in their lives. How few know 
the fullness of joy which is in the presence of God and 
those true delights of the saved that are at the right 
hand of the Most High. 

The Gospel is preached and taught to many; the sal¬ 
vation of God, through His Son Jesus Christ, is offered 
to many; the way of life is pointed out to many; the 
Bread of heaven is fed to many. Yet, “many be called, 
but few chosen.” 3 

Where does the fauit lie? Who is to blame? Surely, 
it cannot be laid at the door of the Father in heaven. 
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only be- 

1 Isa. i: 18. 2 Luke 19:10. 3 Matt. 20:16. 

120 


SPIRITUAL SUCCESS 


121 


gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life.” 4 “He that spared 
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how 
shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” 5 
It cannot be laid at the door of Christ, for, Christ Him¬ 
self said: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise 
cast out.” 6 It cannot be laid at the door of the Bible, 
for, all that the world knows about salvation from sin, 
the hope of forgiveness, and the new life it has learned 
from the Bible, where alone it can be found. The Bible 
is “the word of God.” It cannot, therefore, lead astray 
or deceive. 

No, we must seek elsewhere, for the things of God 
and God cannot be the source of failure. God and His 
things are the highway to spiritual success. He and His 
love gifts are for the saving and the healing of every 
soul. But every soul must meet the divinely given re¬ 
quirements. 

I take it that every one of us here present wants to 
succeed in God’s sense of this word. Each of us wants 
to be on God’s side and stand for God’s cause. Each 
of us wants every one of the two thousand odd promises 
of God’s Word to be richly realized in this life. So I 
want you to consider God’s rule for spiritual success. 

“And others fell upon good ground, and sprang up, 
and bare fruit an hundredfold. . . . But that on 
the good ground are they, who in an honest and good 
heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth 
fruit with patience.” Here is the Divine promise of 
spiritual success and the Divine condition for spiritual 
success. 

4 John 3: 16. 


Rom. 8:32. 


John 6:37. 


122 


WRECKS REBUILT 


To receive the divinely appointed harvest there must 
be “an honest and good heart” in which to plant the 
good seed, which is the word of God. 

A good and honest heart. There were two men, 
chosen by Christ Himself, to be members of His little 
group of the Twelve. Both were sinners, both com¬ 
mitted the same great sin against their Friend and Mas¬ 
ter. Of these, one was called “the son of perdition ,” 7 
while the other was commanded to feed the lambs and 
the sheep of Christ. Both repented of their sin, yet one 
was lost and the other saved. One gained spiritual suc¬ 
cess, the other was a spiritual failure. It was the same 
word they heard day after day from the same lips and 
out of the same loving heart of the same Jesus. Yet 
He cursed one and forgave the other. Tragedy and 
death, joy and life, but one little thing turns the balance 
one way or the other. That one little thing is the heart 
you carry in your breast. This puts you in the Judas 
or in the Peter class, and, into one or the other you 
must go, for there are no others. 

A good and honest heart, this is the Peter rock-bot¬ 
tom of spiritual success. An honest heart is a heart 
which recognizes its own sinfulness and cries out in 
penitence for the blood of the Lamb of God to cleanse 
it from all sin. An honest heart is one which hides 
behind the pillar of Christ in the temple of God and, 
not lifting up so much as the eyes to heaven, smites 
upon the breast, and cries out to the hidden God, “God 
be merciful to me a sinner .” 8 An honest heart is one 
which says with Peter, “Depart from me; for I am a 
sinful man, O Lord .” 9 Not until you recognize and 

T John 17:12. 8 Luke 18:13. 9 Luke 5:8. 


SPIRITUAL SUCCESS 


123 


confess your sins against God can you expect to be 
spiritually successful. “If we confess our sins, he is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness .” 10 “I acknowledged my 
sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, 
I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and 
thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin .” 11 

A good heart. A good heart is a prayerful heart. 
Many are the promises of blessing which God has given 
to those who pray. “If my people, that are called by 
my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek 
my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will 
I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal 
their land .” 12 Notice how prayer is the central point 
of this precious promise. First comes the humbling 
process, lastly comes the turning process, and between 
lies the prayer process, giving unity and surety to the 
entire promised blessing. “I know the thoughts that I 
think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, 
and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall 
ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and 
I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and 
find me, when ye shall search for me with all your 
heart .” 13 Notice again how prayer, seeking the Lord, 
is the center around which this wonderful promise 
turns. “Thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you 
an expected end.” Who wants God to think hard 
things about one’s soul? What every soul seeks is 
peace, a good end in the sight of God. These desired 
gifts of the Father are yours for the asking, they are the 

10 1 John 1:9. 11 Ps. 32:5. “II Chron. 7:14. 

13 Jer. 29: n-13. 


124 


WRECKS REBUILT 


fruits of prayer. Simon, the sorcerer, tried to bribe 
Peter to give him the miraculous power of the Holy 
Spirit. Did he get this power? “Peter said unto him, 
Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought 
that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 
Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter; for thy 
heart is not right with God. Repent therefore of this 
thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the 
thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee. For I per¬ 
ceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the 
bond of iniquity .” 14 Wickedness and iniquity, the 
twin slave masters of the sinning soul. How get free? 
Repent? Yes, by all means, for without repentance, 
there is no forgiveness. Pray? Yes, for prayer is the 
power that lifts the repentance of the soul to the throne 
of grace. Pray the Lord for forgiveness. So Simon 
said to Peter: “Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none 
of these things which ye have spoken come to pass .” 15 
“Pray without ceasing ,” 16 is the Apostle’s direction. In 
his closing words, to the faithful, who were scattered 
abroad, in the space of five short sentences, he directs 
these afflicted, persecuted souls to pray, and he sums up 
his whole teaching and admonition in these words, “The 
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth 
much .” 17 What does Christ say of prayer’s power to 
bring spiritual success? “Watch and pray, that ye 
enter not into temptation .” 18 Prayer bridges the fear¬ 
ful, sullen stream, and helps one to cross the swollen 
flood to the shore of safety and peace. 

A good heart. A good heart is not only a prayerful 

14 Acts 8: 20-23. 15 Acts 8: 24. 16 1 Thess. 5:17. 

17 Jas. 5 : 16. 18 Matt. 26: 41. 


SPIRITUAL SUCCESS 


125 


heart. A good heart is also a heart filled with the spirit 
of worship. When God freed His children from 
slavery and led them out of the land of bondage into 
the land flowing with milk and honey, out of the land 
of lashing into the land of love, the first thing He 
did was to take one of the twelve tribes and set it aside 
as the religious leader of the people. In the land of 
slavery, it was the overwhelming need of worship that 
first awakened the children of God to a realization of 
their terrible condition. As soon as they passed the 
boundaries of the land of slavery, God gave them the 
priest and the tabernacle, the leader and the place of 
worship. Thus in the very beginning of their existence 
God emphasized the important place of worship in their 
life. 

As the children of Israel journeyed toward the prom¬ 
ised land, one day, their leader, Moses, was called up on 
the mountain to receive from the hands of God a new 
blessing for His people. While Moses was on the 
mountain with God, the people proved false to the call 
to worship God and began to turn to idols. Immedi¬ 
ately God sent Moses back to them. When this great 
man of God came down into the camp, his “anger waxed 
hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and break 
them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which 
they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it 
to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made 
the children of Israel drink of it. . . . And the 
Lord plagued the people, because they had made the 
calf, . . ” 19 

God was preparing a precious gift for His people. 


19 Exod. 32:19, 20, 35 . 


126 


WRECKS REBUILT 


While He was in the very act of this merciful and 
gracious work, His people broke His commands and 
went after strange gods. God, seeing their sin, sends 
His servant to them. As Moses goes back he carries 
with him the gift. As soon as this gift enters the place 
of sin, it is broken. As it breaks, God’s mercy and 
grace are insulted by the presumptuous power of sin, 
and He sends forth His punishment, first, the thing 
they worshipped they must swallow, and then comes 
the plague. 

So it is in every event of life. God has many rich 
blessings in store for His people. But alas they will 
turn to worship the gods of this world, they will turn 
to the seeming golden calf, which is in reality hidden 
death, for, the moment a soul betrays its God, and turns 
from worshipping Him, to the service of sin, the gift 
of God is broken, the wrath of God is kindled, the soul 
is made to eat its own dish of rebellion, and then the 
plague of punishment goes out from God. 

“But the Lord, . . . him shall ye fear, and him 

shall ye worship, and to him shall ye sacrifice .” 20 “He 
is thy Lord; and worship thou him .” 21 “Then saith 
Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, 
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only 
shalt thou serve .” 22 “If any man be a worshiper of 
God, and doeth his will, him he heareth .” 23 

Tell me whom you worship and I will tell you whose 
servant you are. If you are worshipping the devil, you 
are serving the devil, and if you are serving the devil, 
you are not serving God, and so you must be worship- 

20 II Kings 17:36. 21 Ps. 45 :ii. 22 Matt. 4:10. 

23 John 9:31. 


SPIRITUAL SUCCESS 


127 


ing the devil. Worship and service, service and wor¬ 
ship, are not possible of separation. Where one is, the 
other inevitably follows. Watch where your heart is, 
watch where you are serving and worshiping. 

Some have tried all these things, have turned a re¬ 
pentant, prayerful, and worshipful heart to God, and 
yet have lost the promised blessing. They have lost it 
because they did not have patience and failed to hold 
fast to God. 

There was a man, whose name was, “the thief,” or, 
“the supplanter.” One evening he was journeying 
along the road when he was stopped by a man who 
began to wrestle with him. All night long the battle 
raged. With the coming of morning the man said: “Let 
me go, for the day breaketh .” 24 But the thief answered: 
“I will not let thee go, except thou bless me .” 25 Then 
the unknown man asked the thief: “What is thy 
name ?” 26 To which he received the reply: “The thief.” 
Then said the unknown man to him: “Thy name shall 
be called no more the thief, but prince of God: for as 
a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and 
hast prevailed .” 27 

Just think of it! Overnight to have one’s name 
changed from “the thief” to “the prince of God.” A 
marvelously wonderful transformation made possible 
because, when the thief had in his grasp the power of 
God, he did not let it go, but put up a patient, persis¬ 
tent fight for the blessing he knew God alone could give 
him,—a new name, which is a new heart. 

When God calls you to repentance and to faithful 

34 Gen. 32: 26. 

37 Gen. 32:28. 


35 Gen. 32: 26. 


26 Gen. 32 : 27 . 


128 


WRECKS REBUILT 


prayer and worship, do not turn from His call until 
you compel Him to bless you. The face of God is 
before you now as it was before Jacob that early morn¬ 
ing hour; it is before you for a blessing or a curse. You 
and you alone can decide the issue. Hold Him fast, 
patiently, persistently, prayerfully; in worship and re¬ 
pentance cry the compelling cry, “I will not let thee go, 
except thou bless me,” and as sure as God is God, you 
will feel the life-giving streams gush forth from the 
throne of grace to wash you and make you clean and 
new in body, heart, and soul. 


THE PATHWAY OF THE ACCOMPLISHED 
MISSION.* 


Isa. 53 : 10-12. HYet it pleased the Lord to bruise him: he hath 
put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for 
sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the 
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 

He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: 
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for 
he shall bear their iniquities. 

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he 
shall divide the spoil with the strong: because he hath poured 
out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the trans¬ 
gressors ; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession 
for the transgressors. 


Jesus Christ, while on earth, walked the way of ser¬ 
vice along five great paths, the path of Wise Dealing, 
the path of Rejection, the path of Suffering, the path of 
Death, and the path of the Accomplished Mission. Which 
of these is the greatest is perhaps hard to say. Take 
but one away and you destroy the meaning of the entire 
life and sacrifice of the Master. Change one and you 
change all. Destroy one and you destroy all. Yet, the 
one which seems to have the most intimate and practical 
bearing upon our present life is the last of Christ’s 
paths, the pathway of the Accomplished Mission. Along 
this way He now travels, travels that you and I and all 
sinners may have a personal realization of His last 
words, spoken from the Cross,—It is finished (John 
19:30.) 

* Reprinted, with certain omissions and additions, from the 
Author’s The Fivefold Pathway. 

129 


130 


WRECKS REBUILT 


The keynote of this last journey of Christ is “Re¬ 
ward for Faithful Service.” We may ask ourselves 
therefore, “First, Why was this journey-service faith¬ 
ful; and secondly, how was this faithful journey-ser¬ 
vice rewarded?” 

i. Why Was This Journey-Service “Faithful?” 

In the opening words of our text we read, “It pleased 
the Lord to bruise him.” Here is the first clue for the 
term Faithful. The journey-service of Christ is accord¬ 
ing to the pleasure of God. It pleased God to bruise 
Him. Scripture very plainly indicates, that 

Before the hills in order stood, 

Or earth received her frame, 

God had perfected the way of salvation. The first indi¬ 
cation mankind had of this way was after his fall when 
God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between 
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her 
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his 
heel.” (Gen. 3:15.) This was the first proclamation 
of the pleasure of God, and in it He manifested not 
only His own will, but bound His Servant, Jesus 
Christ, to a like public acknowledgment of His purpose 
to fulfill the will of the Father. 

How Christ fulfilled this will is well known. Of His 
promise He says, “Wist ye not that I must be about 
my Father’s business?” (Lk. 2:49.) Again, “To this 
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the 
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” (Jn. 
18:37.) Again, “I am the good shepherd: the good 
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” (Jn. 10: 11.) 


THE PATHWAY OF THE ACCOMPLISHED MISSION 131 


“The Son of man came ... to give his life a ran¬ 
som for many.” (Mt. 20:28.) “And I, if I be lifted 
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” (Jn. 
12:32.) So Christ, while on earth, continually ex¬ 
pressed and lived according to the pleasure of God. 

The Apostles, too, bear witness of Christ’s walking 
according to the pleasure of God. Paul tells us how 
He “reconciled” the sinner with God through “one body 
by the cross.” (Eph. 2:16.) In Rom. 5:8 he writes, 
“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” while 
in Gal. 3:13 he says, “Christ hath redeemed us from 
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it 
is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” 
Peter writes as follows, I Pet. 3: 18,—“For Christ also 
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the 
flesh.” The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls 
our attention repeatedly to the fact that “Christ was 
once offered to bear the sins of many.” (9:28.) And 
John the beloved Disciple bids his spiritual children re¬ 
member that “Jesus Christ the righteous ... is 
the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but 
also for the sins of the whole world.” (I Jn. 2:2.) 

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through the power of 
inspiration expressed in the writings of the holy 
Apostles, unite in proclaiming, accepting, and fulfilling 
the pleasure of God. “It pleased the Lord to bruise 
him.” Christ died, the righteous for the unrighteous. 
So He submitted to the good pleasure of His Father, 
and received in return the commendation of God, 
FAITHFUL. 

God has for each of us a plan of life even as He 


132 


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had for His Son. God desires that we should follow 
this plan: and follow it we must either positively or 
negatively; negatively, when we reject Him and scorn 
His pleasure to follow ways of our own devising; posi¬ 
tively, when we permit the Holy Spirit to guide us to 
a successful accomplishment of God’s plan for us. 
Christ’s motto was, “It pleased the Lord.” “It pleased 
the Lord” must be our motto since we seek the com¬ 
mendation, Faithful, for our journey-service. 

And Christ’s journey is called “Faithful” because of 
His knowledge. Christ knew Himself. He knew His 
own powers and His own privileges. He knew just 
how far He might trust these, and when to abandon 
them and throw Himself on the power of God. He 
knew that He might presume as God’s Son, but He 
never forgot that He had “humbled himself and become 
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” 
(Phil. 2:8.) 

He knew mankind also. “Jesus . . . knew all 

men. And needed not that any should testify of man: 
for he knew what was in man.” (Jn. 2:24, 25.) He 
knew the very secret of their strength and their weak¬ 
ness. He knew His enemies as such and treated them 
accordingly. He knew who were His friends and faith¬ 
ful followers and walked with them as they deserved. 

And He knew His God. Christ often said, “I and my 
Father are one.” (John 10:30.) By this He meant 
not only that with the Father He was truly Divine while 
on earth, but that He also had perfect knowledge of 
God’s will concerning Himself. He knew God’s good 
pleasure. And because He knew God and His pleasure. 
He could carry out God’s will, and His knowledge 


THE PATHWAY OF THE ACCOMPLISHED MISSION 133 


spelled itself out in a service, which was called 
FAITHFUL. 

In our own life three things are necessary for the 
successful accomplishment of any given task. We 
must know ourselves, the nature of our task, and the 
abilities of the men who work with and against us. That 
teacher cannot be faithful, who, when fit only for the 
kindergarten, tries to instruct a university class. No 
business man can be faithful unless he knows his own 
ability, the powers and limitations of his employees and 
competitors, and the nature of the business he conducts. 
A cobbler can never build a bridge, nor a cart-driver 
construct a tunnel through the Alps. 

Knowledge of one’s self, of one’s fellowmen, and of 
one’s plan in life are indispensible if one’s service is to 
be called FAITHFUL. We must know God’s good 
pleasure concerning ourselves, we must realize our own 
powers and limitations, we must know the nature of 
those we deal with if we are to serve God properly. 

This essential knowledge comes to us by three ways 
(i) the voice of nature, which at the best gives but a 
mediocre knowledge; (2) the voice of conscience, which 
is true and reliable only in proportion to its purity; and 
(3) the voice of revelation, which alone is perfect and 
infallable. It is only through God’s revelation in Holy 
Scripture that all the elements of a perfect working 
knowledge, proportionate to the scope of our life’s plan, 
can be ours. 

Some may and do say that God’s Word is obscure, 
and that they cannot learn the way of life from it. The 
reason for this is very simple; they seek not to know 
God and His good pleasure; they seek to fathom the 


134 


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mysteries it has seemed good to God to veil from us, 
Scripture tells, “The secret things belong unto the Lord 
our God.” (Deut. 29:29.) And further, “If any man 
will do his will, he shall know the doctrine.” (Jn. 
7: 17.) Leave then the hidden things to God, He will 
take care of them better than any of us can. Let the 
Holy Spirit work in you “the will of his will,” and it 
shall not be long before that knowledge, so requisite for 
service, will be given you, while the plan of your life 
will be unfolded before you, here a little, there a little, 
day by day, until at last you shall see the whole panor¬ 
ama of the noble and glorious service God has planned 
for you. 

2. How Was the Faithful Service-Journey 
Rewarded ? 

In v. 11 we read, “He shall see the travail of his soul, 
and shall be satisfied.” As we contemplate the charac¬ 
ter of Christ we cannot but notice and marvel at His 
perfect peace with Himself. Nowhere can we find a 
single ripple of discontent, of dissatisfaction, of self- 
reproach. Every picture we can frame of Him shows 
Him to us a man of “unruffled calmness and perfect 
self-possession,” a man absolutely at one with Himself. 
This calm, this self-possession, this peace were the direct 
result of His faithful service. He dealt wisely, served 
faithfully, and He was given to know peace, He was 
satisfied. 

In our lives this peace of Christ can be made evident 
too. Who has not felt that gentle calm of content which 
follows a good deed done for Christ, that warm glow of 
satisfaction which follows a cup of cold water offered 


THE PATHWAY OF THE ACCOMPLISHED MISSION 135 


some thirsty wayfarer, the saying of a kind word of 
comfort and encouragement to some downcast heart? 
This calm, this warm glow of satisfaction are but gleams 
of that peace and poise which are God’s rewards for 
faithful service. And is not this reward worth striving 
for? 

Again we read, “He shall see his seed.” Christ’s ser¬ 
vice was promised not only a personal reward but a 
harvest as well. How glorious has been the harvest 
coming from Christ’s faithful service! Who can number 
the souls redeemed from the power of darkness; who 
can count the fallen raised to new manhood and woman¬ 
hood; who can tell the hearts comforted, cheered, en¬ 
couraged; and all by “the travail of his soul?” Remove 
this “his seed” and you make history meaningless, 
knowledge useless, and leave the world tottering on the 
brink of the abyss of ruin and despair. Verily, He 
has seen the increase of His seed sown in His faithful 
service. 

We may not be able to see such a glorious harvest 
come from the service seeds we sow. But the harvest 
will surely come, for so God hath promised. This re¬ 
vealing of our seed’s increase may be delayed, but it 
cannot be destroyed. We may often think our services 
are going unrewarded because we measure God’s eternal 
promise by our fleeting, transient time; but God never 
forgets. Monica wept and prayed for her son, 
Augustine, while his companions mocked her and seemed 
to stop the ears of God; but, as Augustine himself says, 
“Thou sentest thine hand from above, and drewest my 
soul out of that profound darkness.” And Monica saw 
her tears of love and faith become seeds for the harvest 


136 


WRECKS REBUILT 


of service in that great man of God, Saint Augustine. 
The old Scotch minister’s labors seemed to have been 
in vain, for he could point to but one convert, and he 
only a boy of twelve. But this boy lived to lay at the 
feet of Christ and before the throne of England an im¬ 
perial domain. That boy was Robert Moffat, pioneer 
in South African mission work, and translator of the 
Bible into Chuana. The Scotch divine has seen his 
seed’s harvest. 

But the prophet goes on, “Therefore will I divide him 
a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil 
with the strong.” This prophecy was fulfilled in part 
when Christ broke the enclosing gates of death; when 
He triumphantly entered hell and liberated the captive 
saints of the Old Testament promise; when He ascended 
into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the 
Majesty on high. It is being fulfilled today with the 
rescue of every soul from the trinity of evil, the world, 
the flesh, and the devil. And when at the judgment of 
the great white throne every knee shall bow to Christ and 
every tongue shall confess His holy name, then shall 
Christ’s reward of conquest be fully bestowed. 

To seek “a portion with the great,” to stand high 
among men is a noble aspiration if it be for the glory of 
God. But if this desire has its origin in a selfish motive 
it ceases to be a virtue and becomes a vice. This is the 
secret why so many great men have passed away into, 
oblivion. Where do we find today the names of men 
like Alaric, who laid all Europe at his feet; or Genghis 
Khan, who to conquer the Tartars slew six millions of 
them? To be great in this way is a curse, not a bless¬ 
ing. David realized this when he said, “I had rather 


THE PATHWAY OF THE ACCOMPLISHED MISSION 137 


be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell 
in the tents of wickedness.” (Ps. 84: 10.) Solomon felt 
the same danger when he prayed God not to give him 
“riches . . . lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, 

Who is the Lord?” (Prov. 30:8, 9.) 

Indeed, why should we seek “a portion with the great” 
among men when God has promised us a reward for 
faithful service? The ascended Christ, the King of 
glory, the Lord of hosts, says, “Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown.” (Rev. 2: 10.) What 
is this crown? It is “a crown of glory that fadeth not 
away” (I Pet. 5:4) even “the crown of life, which the 
Lord hath promised to them that love him” (Jas. 1: 12.) 
Our reward is, indeed, a portion with the great, but 
with the truly great, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
with Peter, James, and John, with Paul, Silas, and 
Barnabas. How such meditations should make all 
earthly power and position melt away as the snow on the 
sun-kissed hills and plains. 

We march, we march to victory, 

With the Cross of the Lord before us, 

With His loving Eye looking down from the sky, 

And His holy Arm spread o’er us. 

We come in the might of the Lord of Light, 

In joyous train to meet Him; 

And we put to flight the armies of night, 

That the sons of the Day may greet Him. 

Our Sword is the Spirit of God on high, 

Our helmet His salvation; 

And our banner the Cross of Calvary, 

And our watchword: THE INCARNATION. 


138 


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We tread in the might of the Lord of Hosts, 

And fear not man nor devil; 

For our Captain Himself guards well our coasts, 

To defend His Church from evil. 

He marches in front of His banner unfurled, 

Which He raised that His own might find Him; 

And the holy Church through all the world 
Falls in rank and marches behind Him. 

Then onward we march, our arms to prove, 

With the Banner of Christ before us, 

With His Eye of love looking down from above, 

And His holy Arm spread o’er us. Amen. 







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